


Jared Padalecki and the Mystery of the Egyptian Mummy

by hunters_retreat



Series: The Jared Padalecki Adventure Series [1]
Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Death is only the beginning, Egyptologist Jared, Inspired by the Mummy - Indiana Jones type movies, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-17
Updated: 2015-09-17
Packaged: 2018-04-21 06:02:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 39,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4817813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hunters_retreat/pseuds/hunters_retreat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jared is a young Egyptologist trying to find a prize. Jensen is an adventurer in need of a mystery. Jared provides him with one. This is the story of the legend they become.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Jared Padalecki and the Mystery of the Egyptian Mummy

**Author's Note:**

>   This was started as a birthday gift for [](http://zannes.livejournal.com/profile)[zannes](http://zannes.livejournal.com/)   and it decided it didn't want to be a small little fic, but a rather epic one.  And a huge thank you to [](http://insane-songbird.livejournal.com/profile)[insane_songbird](http://insane-songbird.livejournal.com/)   for the amazing manip!

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

They were legend. One was handsome and talented and brilliant beyond comparison. He could read more than two dozen languages by the time they met and never stopped learning new ones. He was a master of lore and had a knowledge of customs that rivaled the natives. He had a love of Egypt and all things pertaining to it. And beyond that, he had a love for the Egyptian Mummy.   
  
The other was cocky and brash. He could blend into the environment and leave nothing of himself behind. He was beautiful and street smart with a way of charming that seemed to come with the ease of breathing. He was a leader, a general of men, and a planner of battles. He loved adventure and never settled for long in the same place. There were only two things he enjoyed more than solving a mystery. The first was having the other man to solve it with, a companion on the trail, the brain to his brawn, the knowledge to his instinct. The second, well… it was enough to say that he found a second love and that it was beyond anything a mortal could dream of.   
  
Together they were more than they could hope to be alone. But legend, as one liked to tell the other, had to start somewhere. Their legend was no different. This is that beginning. This is the story of how a young Egyptologist came to know a certain young adventurer, about how the two came to know one another, and how their lives became forever intertwined.   
  
This is the story of Jared Padalecki and the mystery of the Egyptian Mummy.   


 

**

 

The desert sand was blinding and radiated waves that he knew should be boiling him, but he felt cool and content as he walked along the dune.He knew where he was going but he had no idea why or how, just that this was the right place to be.He was following a trail that had been lost thousands of years before, lost by its creator’s design to hide the magnificence of the temple and keep the pharaoh from learning it’s location.The tomb shouldn’t exist, he knew it, but there had been love in its making, love of a people that would not allow one man’s existence to move to the afterlife without a fitting burial.Love for a man that would bind him to this tomb for all time.

He could see the crevice in the valley as he walked, hidden unless you came a certain way at a certain time of day as if the Gods themselves wanted this place to remain a mystery.A smile pulled at his lips at the romanticism of the thought, but it seemed appropriate in this place.

He made his way into the valley and walked into the doorway hidden between its walls. He let his fingers dance against them, feeling the grit of sand in stark contrast to the smooth look of it.He moved through doors and into open spaces, knew traps and false doors without conscious thought, winding his way through the tomb into the open spaces where [shabti](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shabti) and all sort of furniture, housing, and jewels lines the tomb.In the center was the sarcophagus itself, lined with gold and precious stones with great carvings of the man in life and of his journey through the afterlife after the Gods found his heart to be worthy of such.

He felt the presence behind him, calm and warming within the cool walls of stone, hidden from prying eyes and vengeful men.He wanted to turn, wanted to face what he knew to be a magnificent man, someone trusted and loved, someone the people had been willing to turn against their living god for.He did, slowly turning to the presence, feeling fingers wrapping around his shoulder as he did so.He didn’t recognize anything in his face, couldn’t see anything of it except one thing.Green eyes pierced his strongly and he wanted nothing more than to bury himself in those eyes, in those hands that held him fast and tight.He opened his mouth to speak, but a finger was placed to his lips as the other figure leaned forward, dropping a kiss to each eyelid as if blessing his vision.

When he opened his eyes he was staring blankly at a coffee mug and the remains of his half eaten lunch.Jared sat up from his desk and blinked a few times, trying to remember where he was.

“Did you wake up Jared?”He heard one of his colleagues ask.

Jared shook his head, wishing he could cling to the last vestige of his dream.He remembered bits, remembered those eyes, but there was nothing concrete.He looked down at the scroll he was reading and sighed.“Awake, yes.Coherent, not quite.”

The others smiled at him and Jared smiled back.He wasn’t in the mood to play around but they expected it of him.He was known for being a workaholic, dedicated to this above all things, and the scroll in front of him was fascinating to say the least.The fact that he was dreaming about it wasn’t really the odd part.The fact that he’d dreamed of someone else in the tomb though was.Jared had a knack of understanding his finds, a knack of finding hidden rooms and secret treasures.

Knack was what they called it, but Jared had always had the dreams, since the first time he’d touched an Egyptian artifact.He never really talked about them because he knew people wouldn’t understand.He had decided a long time ago that it was his unconscious working its way through all the information he had learned, but it was only slightly comforting.The thing was though, he’d never had another person show up and that was a little disturbing.Almost more disturbing that he was sure it was a male who had leaned into him, hard muscles and strong hands that had pulled him close, that had made his heart beat wildly. It was a trait of his that he’d thought buried once he’d left school and settled into the idea of becoming an old eccentric archaeologist that all others thought of fondly.

Granted, the old part would be a way in coming since he was only 22, but he already had a reputation for eccentric and he planned on keeping it that way.Better to explain his lack of a personal life as overdone passion for his work than to admit that he didn’t want a wife or children.He’d rather live an outcast and take the lovers he wanted than to make that sort of lie of his life.

He looked down at the scroll he had fallen asleep beside and sighed.He might wonder how he could sleep with such an interesting find, but he knew that he hadn’t.He hadn’t slept since it’d been found and his sleep only came when he’d literally passed out from exhaustion.The scroll had been found in a tomb in the Valley of the Kings, one of the Pharaoh’s close associates, wealthy and well enough regarded that the Pharaoh had allowed him entombed.The amazing part had been the sarcophagus which had been built with a pair of hands.Inside the raised hands had been the scroll that sat beside him now.

The noble had gone to the afterlife with a request for the gods.There were no lines of it upon the outside of the sarcophagus, nothing on the walls that spoke of the other man and the obvious importance of this person was surprising since it lacked substance elsewhere.The sarcophagus had obviously been designed for the purpose of carrying the message though.

Jared took a deep breath, took a long drink of the now cold and bitter tea they liked to serve up around here and wished he were back in his apartment with his coffee instead of the basement of the museum. Still, it was caffeinated and that was all he needed. There was a mystery before him and Jared wanted to finish translating the scroll before anyone else came to show an interest in it.   


 

**

 

Night descended and for once, Jared Padalecki found himself opening the door to his apartment, two blocks from the museum he worked for. He looked around guiltily, like someone might have known what he was doing and followed him home, but even as he did it he knew he was being paranoid. There was no one that would want to have the scroll translated any worse than he did and there were few people in the world that could get the work done as fast as he could either way. Still, it wasn’t every day that he walked out of the museum with his current digs prize mystery.

He closed the door behind him and went straight to his study, setting his bag gently on the table before removing his coat.  He undid the tie and unbuttoned the waist coast, leaving it with his coat on the back of his chair.  He rolled his sleeves up and took a deep breath as he did so.  He needed to redo the work, needed to take another look at the translation but he had no doubt about what he’d read. 

The sarcophagus had been the first mysterious find in the dig.  He’d never seen anything like it.  The workmanship was typical of a high ranking official in the Pharaoh’s favor, but it had been the hands built into it that had them all wondering.  When Jared had found the scroll he’d been amazed.  Now that he’d made a rough translation, he was even more so. 

He took a seat at his desk and closed his eyes.  He could feel the coolness of the tomb again, the grit under his fingers, and eyes that followed him as he walked the hallways as if he had been born there.  When Jared opened his eyes, he could still see those green eyes boring into him, reading him and imparting something of himself in that vision.  It was disconcerting but all the more so in context of the scroll he’d found. 

There was no name given the man in the scroll but Jared assumed it was because of the secrecy that had been given the whole undertaking.  If the scroll was right, there was a marker that would lead the way to an otherwise undisclosed tomb.  One built against the Pharoah’s wishes.  He couldn’t imagine how it could have been done, let alone why.  The scroll talked about it somewhat.  A general, beloved by the people whom the Pharaoh unjustly persecuted.  The people set about to right the wrong, the nobles and commoners alike coming together to help build something that would stand the test of time for the man that they adored above even the Pharaoh himself. 

There were dark hints of the Pharaoh’s anger, his retribution for such a deed, but the scroll spoke mostly of the marker to find the tomb and the knowledge that it had been built for this man, build in love, so that his soul would have a place to rest until he was finally free to love as he would.

He wondered if the Pharaoh’s general had fallen in love with the Pharaoh’s daughter or some other noble that was beyond his station, to warrant the disapproval of the Living God, but nothing else was said, just more hints about something more to come. 

Jared thought about his options.  He could go to the museum and try to get their approval to seek out the marker.  He could take the months to write out a proposal and figure out budgets and wait for their decision.  He could wait and know that while he made those plans it was likely some other would hear of it and go out on his own and desecrate the tombs.  Or he could go to his men in the morning, those he trusted, and tell them to prepare for a journey.  He had the money to make the trip without the museum’s backing and if it turned out to be as amazing as he thought it would be, there would be plenty for the museum to buy from him later if he wanted to make up some of the funds.

He felt a smile play across his lips, an honest one the likes of which he hadn’t felt in some time.  Jared needed the adventure, needed the question and the hunt for the answers, not just the easy tidy work the museum offered him because of his age, regardless of his expertise and experience. 

He nodded to himself but even as he did so, he knew that he was really answering a question from someone else.  Yes, he was going to do this.  He would find the marker and he would find the tomb of this unknown and yet beloved General.

 

**

 

Akil was as happy as always to take Jared’s business and his money.Jared had been working with him since he’d come to Egypt more than seven years earlier.He’d spent time among the men, watching who they respected and who they challenged, and paying real attention to who challenged them.

When he met Akil, he’d been tested himself and Akil had liked what he’d learned about Jared.Even if he was an American, they learned he wasn’t the yahoo cowboy they all feared and all too often met.Jared might have an adventuring spirit, but it was an educated one as well.He impressed the others with his work ethic and his knowledge and let other people talk about his protégé language abilities and his uncanny ability to find anything hidden.

Given the undertaking, Akil promised a group of men that would be honest, hard working, and most importantly, trustworthy.Jared thought he’d be lucky to get 15 men of that caliber on such short notice but Akil promised 25 and he’d never let Jared down yet.

Akil was a good man, an interesting man that Jared had come to rely on since he’d come to Egypt.He was one of the few who knew about Jared’s dreams and believed in the sometimes prophetic nature of them.It made working with him easier when he didn’t have to lie about where his information came from.With Akil as his foremen other men listened.They worked where Akil told them, for as long as he told them, and trusted his judgment.Jared did the same.When Akil said it was best to dig one way to get to a location, that’s the way they went.If it went against something Jared had seen, they debated it between them, but always Jared took Akil’s advice and concerns as strongly as his own.He’d saved their lives enough times to merit it.

When the next morning came, Jared was met with 32 men and Akil’s smiling face outside the city walls.They rode horses and camels and had extras with equipment and supplies and Jared just shook his head.“You amaze me my friend.”

Akil’s smile grew.“You have a good reputation for being a fair and patient employer Jared.They would rather work for you and take this journey than be working for some stuffy museum man anyway.”

Jared took the compliment and nodded to the other man.“Then we had best get off before they start to think I just mean to walk them back to the basement.Let’s find ourselves a mystery Akil.”

Two days into their journey and Jared was more than happy with the progress they had made.The scroll he had translated gave the location of the marker that would give them a real indication of the scope of their trip.When night came he was bundled up in his tent, taking comfort as he could in his blankets and wishing in some ways that he’d been the type to stay with a museum.It wasn’t that he couldn’t, but Jared loved being in the field.He had a quick mind for linguistics and he wasn’t above asking the natives for more information if he thought they knew it.In fact, he liked to think that in most cases, the natives knew a fair bit more about whatever he was trying to dig up since it was almost always rich in their own historical lore.Most archaeologists preferred to keep the locals out of it, trusting only to their books and their foremen.

Jared was too hands on for that though.He wanted to mix it up with others, wanted to get his hands dirty and to learn to speak with the people.His mother claimed it was his downfall, his need to be in the field with uncouth men and that it was what had started his ‘unnatural’ appetites.She’d died when he was only 16 but it had been two years before that since he’d seen her face to face.Her reaction was part of the reason he chose not to get emotionally involved with others.A few friends that he could be close with was enough for him.Most nights.

That night was different though.For some reason, when he closed his eyes, instead of the dark calling to him, it was green eyes that found their way into his head and strong arms around his own, pulling him close.

When he woke in the morning he felt as tired as when he’d gone to lie down.He felt something in the air about him and the animals were acting up a little.When he found Akil, the other man looked wound up.“Do you feel what I feel?”Jared asked the other man.

Akil just nodded and they were both running through the camp to get things packed up as quickly as they could.They could see a rock outcropping in the distance, something Jared was heading for because it was one of the few structures in the area that might be able to be used as a marker.They needed to get to it and quickly if he and Akil were right.He just hoped they were wrong.Or that they had enough time.

An hour later the winds began to pick up a little.The men were eyeing the dunes on all sides of them, looking for the smallest sign that the wind was about to turn into something more devastating.Jared kept the pace going as fast as he could without risking serious injury to the men or animals.He’d make a run if they had to but he didn’t want to risk losing men, animals, or equipment to the fickle footholds of the sand when he didn’t have to.

They didn’t stop for meal, just ate in the saddle what they could and made sure everyone had their water bottles filled in case of separation.They all knew what to do, how to survive if need be and they knew to keep some provisions on their person, not trust entirely to the caravan, but they were Jared’s responsibility even if they did all know what could happen out in the desert.It was a hostile environment and no precautions they took could change that.

Two hours past noon, it came for them.The animals began to dance around and when Jared looked back he saw the wall of sand advancing on them.“RUN!”He screamed and didn’t look back to make sure they were following.Even if they hadn’t heard them, they were seasoned men who knew when to follow.

They had a chance.They’d pushed as hard as they dared and now it gave them the chance.If they could get into the outcropping, if there were places to hide among the rocks, they might survive it.

He felt others close by, others running slightly behind him and he was afraid of how many they’d lost already.The sand was kicking up around him as he made the dash towards the rock opening but he wasn’t sure if it would be enough.A hand grabbed at his reins from the side and he was about to lash out to gain control back when he looked up and saw green eyes staring back at him.The horses didn’t slow, but he led them into the rock.Jared took over his reins again, but let the other man lead them.The man’s horse turned left suddenly and when Jared followed they were suddenly in a small cavern.The man with the green eyes didn’t stop but led Jared further back as his men followed them in.Twenty feet in, the rock split into a larger cavern and walkways went along either side.Thirty feet in and there was no sound of the sand storm, just his men dismounting and trying to check on each other.

Akil was among them and he nodded to Jared.He could see the way he eyed the stranger and they’d worked long enough together that Jared interpreted it to mean that he had the men and he wanted Jared to check on the other.Considering his dream, he had no desire to do anything else.

He followed the other man further into the caves and found him tending his horse in a secluded alcove off to one side.It gave them privacy and Jared was grateful for that much.“Thank you.”He said, coming up behind the other man.

He turned and there it was again, those eyes that had been haunting him since he’d dreamed of them.Sometimes he felt they were watching him, even when he was awake.He took a deep breath and smiled, hoping it melted away some of the tension.“We would have found the caves but who knows how many men we would have lost while looking for them.I owe you a debt.”

The other man looked at him for a minute and then nodded.When he pulled the tightly wrapped hat off his head and pulled the bandana from his mouth Jared barely managed to contain a gasp.The man was beautiful.There was no other word for it.Green eyes and full, lush lips.Even with sand in his hair he could see the dark blond at the roots of the short spiky mess.Jared pulled his own hat from his head and tried to shake off a little of the dust that he knew had to be clinging to his brown curls.He held his hand out to the other man.“My name is Jared Padalecki.I’m an archaeologist.”

His hand was met, though the other man smiled as if he was amused at the custom.He grabbed a bottle from his horse and took a long sip before handing it to Jared.He cleared his throat then and to Jared it sounded like someone clearing rust from metal.He took a sip of water from the bottle that had been offered, taking it as a sign of hospitality, before he sat down on one of the stone benches that his eyes were just adjusting to see.

“Jensen.”The other man said as he sat down across from Jared.“Jensen Ackles.I’m…” he paused as if the words were amusing as well.“I’m something of an adventure.”

 

**

 

It’s not that Jared didn’t want to learn more about the mysterious man that arrived in the nick of time to save the day, but there were other things he has to take care of.  When Akil came wandering back, looking for him, Jared excused himself from Jensen’s company and found out that they lost four men.  One was last seen when his camel went down before they reached the rock.  The other three were completely unaccounted for.  Twenty eight men and of those only two had lost their packs.   The supplies animals were still with them and that made everything better. 

 “What do you know about the stranger?”  Akil asked and there was curiosity in his words, but a fair degree of trepidation.  Strangers didn’t come across you in the desert like that and it was obvious Akil didn’t like it one bit. 

 “He seems fair enough.”  Jared answered.  “His name is Jensen Ackles.”

 “This man?  This is Jensen Ackles?”

 Jared’s brow furrowed.  “You know him?”

 “I know _of_ him.  An adventurer, I believe you would call him.  He goes his own way and rarely travels long in the company of others.  If he is this man, then you would be well off to have him join us.”

 Jared nodded.  “Let’s get everyone settled for this storm and then we’ll worry about that.”

He didn’t notice it immediately because he was busy with the others.  He moved around them, talking, laughing, and lightening their moods.  The storm was still blowing outside and they decided it would be best to simply bed down for the rest of the day and night.  Men worked their trade as they needed then, sharpening knifes or mending shovels.  One of the men was skilled at caring for the fine brushes and he took a look at those.  The horses and camels were overlooked for signs of strain or injury. 

Then he noticed a small laugh.  His men were settling into the main chamber, happy enough to let Jared and Jensen alone to the privacy of the smaller alcoves.  He looked up at the laughter and saw Jensen moving around them the same as he was doing.  Where Jensen’s fingers grazed a man’s shoulder, he sat up taller.  He shared water with them and they laughed a little brighter.  When Jensen looked up at Jared, something in the way his eyes seemed to reach out to him made Jared’s smile a little brighter too. 

“We would be good to keep him Jared.”

Jared nodded at Akil’s words, knew that he trusted the other man’s judgment enough to ask him along just for Akil’s sake.  As he watched Jensen wandering through the cavern with the men though he just kept wondering how he was going to be able to keep his hands off the other man.

He forgot about it almost as soon as Akil walked away.  Not because Jensen Ackles was easy to forget, or that their plight was either, but as Jared had been looking through his bags he’d noticed something on the wall.  When he went to the front there were small marking on the wall, not obvious when they were pushing to get as far out of the storm’s winds as possible but when he looked it was there.  He lost time completely before he heard the soft scuff of feet behind him and someone clearing their throat.

“Yes, just one moment.”  He said, barely aware of what he’d said or the need to say anything.  What he was looking at was a small set of hieroglyphics and they seemed to be telling a story, if he could only find all the pieces of it.

“If that’s the sort of thing you’re into, I’m sure I could find something else for you to play with.” 

Jared turned around sharply to find Jensen behind him, lips turned up in a smile and eyes warm and amused.  “Sorry about that.  I…” he looked at the wall and it wasn’t until a water bottle was placed in his hand that he was able to look away again.  “I get caught up but it’s really very fascinating.”  Jared assured him. 

“What does it tell you?”  Jensen asked as he looked up at the wall behind him.

“So far, it tells me we’re going the right way.”

“Really?”  Jensen asked.  “Because I was pretty sure you had to be lost, traveling out this way.  I nearly didn’t believe my eyes when I saw you running from the storm.” 

Jared nodded.  “Yes.  I’m following a map left in the hands of a sarcophagus.  It’s supposed to lead us to an unknown tomb.  It’s absolutely fascinating because if this is accurate then the tomb was made in secret and against the Pharaoh’s wishes.”  Jensen’s eyes danced before him and he shook his head, thinking perhaps it was time to address what Akil had said, before he forgot it in hieroglyphs again.  “Akil seems to think highly of you.  It’s not often that he presses me about things, but he thinks you would work well with us on this journey.  What do you feel about joining us?”  Jared asked.  “I can see the way my men respect you.  Even without Akil’s words, I could see that.  It’s not much of a reward for helping us, but I’ll see you paid well in the end.  That much I can promise.”

Jensen looked hard at him, eyes turning to stone for a moment.  “I didn’t help you for reward so you don’t need to think anymore on that.  As for the rest, let’s just see how everyone feels after the storm lets up.”

Jared nodded.  “That sounds fair enough.”

“Good.  Then let me show you what else there is to see here.”

Jared let Jensen lead him further into the cavern, following walk ways that were too symmetrical to have been created by nature.  “I can’t get over the work these people put into this.”  He confessed as they walked through the tunnel. 

“What do you mean?” Jensen asked, but Jared could see the way his fingers trailed the walls, his touch filled with reverence and awe.

“Thing of what it would take to create a tomb, the labor, the materials, let alone the wealth needed to procure those things and to furnish it.  Then think of what it must have taken to hide that from the Pharaoh and anyone who might have wanted to gain favor with the Pharaoh by telling him of the tomb.  Think of what it would take just to leave a marker behind like this, in a way that they would survive across time.  Just think how long it must have taken a crew of men to come into this cavern and carve out these hallways to wherever you are leading me.”  Jared sighed.  “This man, he must have been someone spectacular.”

Jensen seemed to be shaken a little and Jared reached a hand out to touch his shoulder.  “Jensen?”

“It’s… I’ve walked in this cavern a hundred times and I don’t think I ever understood before now.”  He gave Jared a sad smile, but when he grasped his hand he gently squeezed as if to reassure Jared that he was alright.  “I’m glad I thought to bring you back this way.  Perhaps you will be able to appreciate what is here far better than I can.”

“What is it?”  Jared asked, his curiosity getting the best of him.

Jensen smiled as he dropped Jared’s hand.  “You’ll see when we get there.”

A few more twists and turns and Jared realized that Jensen was following small marks at the bottom of the wall.  He wanted to stop an examine each of them but he had a feeling that Jensen was taking him to something that he would want to see more than he wanted to look at these.

Jensen stopped suddenly and Jared almost ran into his back.  When Jensen turned Jared found himself so close that all he could see were those green eyes.  He could feel phantom hands holding him close and lips kissing his eyes and he tripped back a few steps in his haste to get away before he could try to close the distance between them anymore. 

Jensen looked confused, but Jared just shook his head and gave Jensen a slight smile.  “Sorry.  I didn’t mean to almost run through you.”

Jensen nodded, but didn’t look comforted by the words.  “It’s in here.”  He said, as he watched Jared.  “It’s… I don’t think anyone’s ever seen it.  If they have, they left it undisturbed which I can’t imagine would really happen.  This is the sort of thing you see hanging in museums, not left to the ravages of nature.”

Jared nodded, understanding that Jensen was trying to show him something he thought could be important.  Jared didn’t say anything because he didn’t trust himself to speak.  He knew what he wanted this to be and everything he’d seen in the cavern so far seemed to indicate this would be the marker he had been looking for. 

Jared took a step forward but Jensen’s hand flew up, his fingers catching to grip tightly in Jared’s shirt.  “Jared… this place… it means something.  I feel connected to this place, of all the places I’ve been.  Treat it with care.”

Jared nodded, unable to say anything with those green eyes holding him so completely.  He felt Jensen’s fingers dig tighter into his shirt for a moment then release slowly.  Jensen nodded as he took a deep breath, then stepped away, turning to lead Jared through another corner and into an open cavern.

Jared stopped as soon as he stepped into it.  It was half the size of the first, but where wind and rains had formed the first, this one had been placed where the ravages of either would never touch it.  The cavern was man made, with strict geometric corners.  Mirrors reflected off one another, coming from another source behind them, illuminating the room as if they were in the midday sun. 

On the wall directly opposite him was a huge relief sculpture.  “It is here.”  He said, his voice a whisper that seemed to echo along the walls.  It was as if the room itself was build for worship, that even here in the first marker the people who loved this man demanded respect from any who entered.  He felt humbled and awestruck to be able to stand there at all. 

When he found the strength to move forward, he did so slowly, his eyes cataloguing what he saw in whole without starting to translate what it was.  “I need Akil.”  He said softly.  “In a few minutes I will need his help.”  He looked over at Jensen then and realized that the other man was watching him.  “I just need a few minutes first.” 

Jensen nodded and backed away.  Jared knew he hadn’t left the chamber but he was giving Jared space and that was what he needed.  Jared sat down in the middle of the chamber, eyes taking it all in, before he closed his eyes and just breathed deeply.  He could smell something in the air, kapet, he thought as he inhaled the sweet, slightly spicy scent.  He heard the murmurs of those around him, heard the almost prayer like quality of their voices as they worked to finish the relief, work created out of love and respect.  He felt the fear and knew that they were aware of what would happen if their work was found, but it was not deterrent enough to stop them.  He couldn’t hear the words, knew if he opened his eyes to try to find them that the vision would be lost to him.  Instead he sunk further into the feeling of it all, the steady hum of their work around him, the soft chipping away of stone and the sanding of the walls around them.  It went fast around him, like hours were passing in just minutes and he could feel the growing excitement and restlessness to have it completed.  Their fear was ever present and grew more intense towards the end, but as it did, so did their dedication and devotion.  He didn’t know what caused it, didn’t have an understanding of who the man was and what he did to cause this adoration of the people but when his mind’s eye slowed a noble stood before him and there was no doubt in Jared’s mind that this was the man he had taken the first scroll from. 

He watched as one by one each of the slaves handed over a figure.  Shabti, he knew, so that they would be allowed to help their beloved general with his passage to the afterlife.  He shivered as he watched the number of men and women offering their afterlife in servitude.  Some held simple figurines and others more ornate.  Some offered models of blacksmithing, or hunting, or planting fields, but they all meant the same thing and it was again humbling to be in a place where so many people had love this one person so much. 

He jerked his eyes open when he felt someone touch him.  When he looked up at Jensen, eyes wide with concern, Jared took a ragged breath and pulled away, feeling raw and jagged.  Jensen backed away, but his brow was furrowed in concern.  “I need Akil now.”  He said as softly as he could and Jensen simply nodded as he walked away to bring the man to him.

Jared took a deep breath, alone in the room for the first time and let himself come back from the vision.  He didn’t know how to ask Jensen if maybe he had visions also, but the way he seemed to revere the place suggested he knew something more about it.  Or maybe it was simply having been in this room.  He didn’t know, but he hoped Jensen would stay with them long enough for him to ask.  He said he was connected to the place and now Jared felt the need to find out why.         

He felt Akil’s presence in the room in the way he had felt the servants, a man moved by love of what he did.  Oddly enough, he didn’t feel Jensen’s presence as much as he felt his eyes watching him.  Akil stared at the relief for a moment before turning his wide eyes to Jared’s.  “This is it.”

Jared nodded.  “It is.  We’ll find him Akil.  We’ll find the tomb and see what it was about this man that deserved so much devotion.”

Akil understood him, understood that Jared was a man caught in a mystery, not in the material around him.  He didn’t want to find the tomb for a need to sell it or to be able to say he did it first.  Jared Padalecki couldn’t keep himself clear of a mystery.  He needed to solve it, needed to get to the bottom of it.  As Akil approached the relief with appropriate awe, Jared’s eyes locked with Jensen’s. 

There was a hard look in his eyes as he watched Jared and he didn’t know where it came from or how such a stony glance could come from a man who radiated such warmth and comfort at other times.  It was another mystery and Jared resolved himself to solve that one as well. 

 

**

 

“You should be careful with that one Jared Padalecki.”Akil said as he came over to sit beside Jared.Most of the men were sitting quietly in a circle, sharing stories and passing around extra little tidbits of comfort that they could.They both watched Jensen sitting with them, smile infectious as he fit seamlessly into their company.

“Have you changed your mind about him Akil?”Jared asked, slightly taken back by the words.Akil was a good judge of character but Jared wasn’t so sure he’d go back on his invitation for Jensen to join their expedition even if Akil demanded it at that point.Beyond simply politeness, he wanted to know who this man was.

“No.No, he is good as I have said, but he watches you and there is something in his eyes that I cannot read.He will be good for the men and good for this journey, but I can’t say that he will be good for you.”

Jared looked at Akil for a minute and sighed.In the way that Akil trusted Jared about their finds without asking where he got his information, Jared listened to Akil’s insight.“What do you know about him?”

Akil looked away, taking a drink from his water skin before sharing it with Jared.When it was resealed, he looked at the circle of men.“No one knows where he comes from and he does not tell of it.What I know is that he came out of the desert a few years before you came to me.He walked in from the sands as if he belonged there.He shows up from time to time on digs and seems to find himself always in the heat of something troubling.”

“You mean he brings trouble with him?”

“No.I mean just that he seems to find trouble or it him.Men who have worked with him say they would die for him and know that he would die for them without question.He works with them and becomes one of them, only to disappear when everything is done.Until he shows up at another dig at some other time.”

“Why haven’t I ever heard of him?”

“Do you know of many archaeologists that would be willing to say another man led them to the treasure they were seeking?”Akil asked.“Will your own word say that you found this marker with study and hard work and determination, or that you were shown it by Jensen Ackles?”

He understood the answer then and it was an interesting question in and of itself.He knew without a doubt that he would have explored these caverns until he found the markings on his own.The find should be his by the number of hours he had put into the translation, the expense he put into the expedition, but nonetheless it was Jensen who had been there first, who had shown him the way without stuttering steps.He knew where he was and had been there before.He snorted.“I see your point.”

“The men don’t speak of him often, except in quiet tongues and they don’t call him by name.They speak of him as the green-eyed.”

That name was something Jared knew.It was considered something of a legend in certain circles.The working men always spoke of the green-eyed but never anything specific.It was a measure of pride for them and he understood now more than ever why Akil said they should keep him there.

“I think it’s time I learned more about the green-eyed.”Jared said softly.

Akil looked at him, something hidden in his expression.“Just be careful Jared.The green-eyed, he never stays for long and he comes and goes as he pleases.”

Jared nodded.“It’s a mystery Akil.You know how I am about mysteries.”

“How are you about mysteries?”

Jared looked up and saw Jensen approaching them.He could see from Jensen’s face that he was curious but nothing showed that he heard anything else they’d been talking about.“I can’t leave them unsolved.”

Jensen nodded and opened his mouth to speak but Akil took that moment to excuse himself, leaving them alone to talk.When he was gone, Jensen nodded towards the back wall where the alcove and their things were set up.“Can we talk?”

Jared just nodded as he stood up and followed the other man away from his men.He had no fear of Jensen, no matter what fear might be gripping Akil.The only fear he had was that his personal secrets might come to the forefront if he was left alone with Jensen for too long.It had been a long time since he’d found himself attracted to anyone and he was barely able to contain the need to touch him, to see how he’d react if he leaned too far into his space and just breathed him in.

“What are you looking for out here?”Jensen asked as they sat opposite each other.

“A tomb.I told you about the map I found.”

“Why though?Why do it yourself?Your men talk about you, they talk about your miracle with words and how you work day and night at the museum.Why leave it when you have so much else to do?”

Jared looked at him, trying to understand what Jensen was looking for.“It’s something different, something out of the ordinary.You heard me before.I can’t leave a good mystery unsolved.I like to dig things free.I might work in the museum and spend a lot of time there doing translations, but it’s not what I love most about this.I love to be in the field, getting my hands dirty and being a part of it.I need to be there when the mystery comes to a head, need to be at the opening of things and to see where else it might lead us.”

Jensen just watched him a moment then nodded his head.

“What about you Jensen?Our talk earlier?Are you going to stay with us, or will you disappear when the storm lets go of us?”

Jensen didn’t say anything at first, but Jared could see him thinking.He didn’t know what else it might be about so he didn’t worry about it just yet. “Why do you want me here?”

“Akil says you’re good with the men, that they respect you, that you have a good reputation on digs.” He said with a shrug. “I don’t really need more men and I don’t need someone who would compete with Akil’s authority.I do need someone I can talk to though, someone that isn’t just here for orders or for pay, though I expect you to take both if you come with us.”He said with a small smile.“What I think, is that you and I could work on this mystery together.You knew about the marker here and perhaps there is more that you’ll know that I don’t.We can help each other.”

“So you want someone to help you lead these men.”

“I want someone the men trust and that I can turn to for help.”

Jensen seemed to be searching his eyes for answers and when he finally spoke it was with a brief shake of his head.“I think… I think it could be interesting to see what happens with this tomb of yours.”

“Really?”

“I am like you Jared.I can’t turn away from a good mystery.”

Jared smiled and when Jensen’s own lips turned up in answer, the light in his eyes warming with it, he couldn’t help but think for someone who had just invited along temptation, he was far too happy.

 

**

 

He could feel the weight of the stone around him and without thought Jared stood from his crouched position by one of the lower markers and took a deep breath. The others were asleep, except for the men who kept guard at the front of the cave and in the cavern where the men were sleeping. Jared strongly believed in taking precautions in the night. The desert was a wild place and in that barren landscape men did strange things to survive.  
  
He felt something calling to him, like a phantom spirit pulling him away from his work and deeper into the catacombs. There was something sad as he wandered through the walkway, something darker as the artists portrayed the man they gave so much devotion to. Even with the call to be elsewhere, Jared couldn’t help but stop at each small marker and run his fingers over it, feeling the history and care put into the work there.   
  
He didn’t know how many people had died completing this marker, how many had willingly given their lives for it, but he understood his earlier vision better now. The slaves who completed the work had died for it, giving their lives to keep the secret. He couldn’t understand that sort of devotion and all he could do now was try to pay homage to it as he walked further along the halls.  
  
When he came to the main chamber he stopped just inside the door. He didn’t need to remove the tagelmust that covered the other man’s head and face to see who was underneath it. Even with his face covered, all Jared needed to see were the eyes to know that it was Jensen.  
  
His head was tilted up, looking at the great relief and then it bowed, as if he too felt the weight of the dedication on his shoulders. He was speaking, a whisper to soft for Jared to make out what was said but he knew it wasn’t English. It intrigued him even more. Jensen was an enigma and Jared wanted nothing more than to figure him out. He came out of nowhere and seemed content enough to help them out. From what Akil said, he never wanted credit for what he did but did it for the love of discovery. There was a serenity that surrounded him, that made people around him calm and collected, but there was a sadness underneath it all that made Jared wonder just how to make it disappear.   
  
Jared started to move towards him, but thought better of it. He didn’t know if Jensen would welcome his presence and even though his fingers itched to touch him, to sooth the tension from the line of his shoulders, he wasn’t sure he would be allowed. And he knew that once he touched, he might not be able to stop and then Jensen would surely leave. He felt frozen for a moment, wanting to move away to give the man his solitude and wanting nothing more than to touch him, comfort him. In the end, he took a step back and turned to walk out.  
  
“Don’t go.”   
  
The voice was quiet but when Jared looked back, Jensen was staring at him, eyes pleading in a manner than seemed strangely at odds with the command in his voice. Strange, and yet compelling. He turned around slowly. “I didn’t mean to disturb you.”  
  
“I know.”   
  
Jensen began to unwrap the headdress that kept him protected from wind and sand on the outside and Jared wanted to ask what it protected him from inside, but bit his tongue before it could escape. Jensen sat back on his heels as if a supplicant and Jared moved to his side, sitting as he did, keeping his eyes on the relief. “What do you see?” He asked, his voice as quiet as the other man’s had been. Jared saw people moving in the room, people whispering and hopeful as they built this marker, this monument to a man they adored. Others though, they saw stone and only stone. It took a seasoned eye to see behind it. Akil was one such man, who saw the history and the lives and not just the flat story written in stone. He hoped Jensen was another.   
  
Jensen looked at him for a moment before bowing his head. “I see a people who created great monuments to men who did not deserve them. I see people who gave their lives for a dream that could not come to pass.”   
  
He looked at Jared then and there was such a depth of sadness that Jared had to reach out, had to touch Jensen’s shoulder to keep the man from drowning in it. He didn’t shirk away from the touch, but continued. “I see a people who were so used to showing devotion with pain and suffering that they didn’t understand their General wouldn’t have wanted any of it. Not at the cost they paid.”  
  
Jared nodded his understanding. He felt the pain of these people, but he felt the pride and the joy also. Jensen didn’t seem to be able to see that part of it.   
  
“This wasn’t a work of pain Green-eyed.” He didn’t know why he used that instead of his name, but Jensen’s eyes widened slightly at the title. “These people did what they did in love. Whether there was pain in the act of it, or if their death came at the end, we need to honor their intent or we lose this gift from them. The other tombs I’ve seen, the ones built under the lash, were all about power. This was done with hands that knew the lash but worked in spite of it. They built, knowing if it was found they would be destroyed. They turned the thing that kept their people enslaved and found a way to make it into a thing of beauty. Don’t just see their pain Green-eyed. See their love. It wants to be seen, it begs to be witnessed.” He touched Jensen’s cheek lightly, his thumb trailing across stubbled skin to wipe at the tear marks that left trails through the sandy grit that accumulated on everyone in the desert.   
  
Jensen stared at him, his tears falling silent and for a moment Jared thought he just might open up and talk to him, but then he turned away, his face looking back up to the relief. Jared wanted to reach out, to get back the missing warmth of the other man but there would be no way for Jensen to believe it was about comfort then. It would be about his wants and needs and that wasn’t what he was there for. Instead he let his own eyes trail back up to the relief.  
  
“No man deserves this amount of love.” Jensen finally said, breaking the silence.  
  
Jared shrugged. “Who are we to judge these people? They found this man worthy. Perhaps we should just trust that, no matter who he was, to these people, he was worth it.”  
  
Jensen stood up and walked away from Jared but he stopped at the doorway. He looked back towards Jared, but his eyes were on the floor. It was the same sad expression that had made him reach out before and he wished Jensen could accept the beauty he saw there but there was obviously something else getting in the way of that.  
  
His voice was quiet and commanding once again as he shook his head, leaving Jared behind with the strength of his conviction. “No man deserves this.”

 

**

 

"You'll come back to it."   
  
Jared looked at the hand on his shoulder and followed it up to meet brilliant green eyes. "We will, you mean."  
  
Jensen gave him a small smile. "We'll see."   
  
He turned and walked away, leaving Jared to go check with Akil. Jared stared at the relief for a few more minutes before closing his eyes and allowing his vision to sweep him away again. He felt the slaves swarming around him, felt their love and devotion as they finished the last of the marker. He felt his vision still and the air seemed to thicken. The slaves of his vision turned towards him, looking past him and as they went to their knees he could hear the whispered awe in their voices. "Green eyes."   
  
The vision fell away and he looked back to find Jensen watching him. "Are you alright?" he asked. There was something in his eyes though that said he knew something had happened as he walked into the room.  
  
Jared didn't know what to say to that. His visions sometimes addressed him, sometimes changed to lead him to new directions but they'd never acknowledged another person nor responded to their presence before.  
  
"Everyone is mounted up and ready to go." Jensen said breaking the silence.  
  
"Already?"  
  
Jensen smiled slightly then and Jared's fingers itched to touch him. "I left you here thirty minutes ago." Jared knew he shouldn't be surprised because he knew he couldn't judge time when he let his visions take him but they didn't normally last that long. "Akil said you might need help finding your way back."   
  
There was a question in that statement but Jared didn't know if he could answer that just yet. Instead he just smiled. "Thanks. Guess we should join them."  
  
He started to walk past Jensen when the other man grabbed his wrist, pulling him closer. "You don't need to hide things from me Jared."  
  
"Because you've been so very forthcoming about yourself, right?" He didn't know why he said it anymore than he understood the sting from the truth of it. He wanted to trust Jensen and wanted that trust in return.   
  
Jensen's eyes widened, speaking volumes. He shook his head before he released the other man's wrist. "We'll talk at the tomb. We’ll get there and … it’s a fitting place for this talk."  
  
Jensen was visibly shaken at the idea of opening up to him, but Jared pushed his sympathy away. They all had their secrets while Jared didn’t doubt that whatever had closed Jensen off to people on a personal level was nasty, he couldn’t help but feel slightly elated that the man agreed to it. He’d keep his tongue in check. He could manage it for the two days they thought it would take to get there. Then, he’d get the answers he wanted about Jensen and maybe Jared would be able to open up about his own. He wanted that. He wanted to be able to trust Jensen with his visions but it was a two way street that Jensen needed to be willing to walk with him.   
  
He couldn’t say anything though so he nodded, then walked past Jensen to join Akil and the others outside to start their two day journey to the tomb of the unknown General.  
  
  
**  
  
  
The journey was blessedly uneventful. Hot days and cool nights and more than once he wished he could move closer to Jensen for warmth, only to stop himself because he knew he wouldn’t be able to control what he did in his sleep. Jensen might not mind huddling for warmth, but waking up, pulled tightly into Jared’s arms was a different thing altogether.  
  
The reached the peak of the range at sunset and as Jared and Jensen came to the top Jared gasped. The pyramid that sat in the middle of the valley had been completely unseen as they approached. It was a small valley, but deep with a steep slope on all sides that hid it’s treasure securely in the center. There were no main cities that would cause travel to pass this way, then or now. Jared tried not to let his excitement get the best of him. He knew how this worked. Grave robbers would have struck long before now, hollowing out the temple and possibly destroying the work that had been created inside.   
  
He looked at Jensen and he could see the doubt in his eyes. “Jared, we can’t get down there tonight.” He said softly.   
  
“I know, but we made it this far. We found it.” He said, unable to keep the smile from his lips. “It doesn’t matter what we find inside.” Jensen quirked an eyebrow and Jared laughed. “I don’t mean I won’t be disappointed if everything is destroyed, but at least we’ve found it.”  
  
“Camp for the night?”  
  
“Yes.”   
  
Jensen rode off behind him, shouting orders to the others, explaining that they’d make the last leg of the trip into the valley in the morning. He sat wrapped up in the sight, something tightening his chest as he did so. It wasn’t a vision, but there was a feel of serenity in the valley and Jared knew that once they entered, they’d be destroying that. He felt pained at the thought, but at the same time he felt the visions gave him a claim on the place, as if he was being given their right of passage.  
  
“Is this such a good idea?”   
  
Jared looked down at Jensen who had dismounted and was standing beside him. Jared took a moment to dismount himself and handed the creature off to one of the men nearby before returning to the peak.   
  
“You don’t want to see it, now that we’ve come this far?” Jared asked.   
  
Jensen huffed slightly. “We came chasing a tail, but sometimes when you catch it, the teeth at the front come back to bite you for it.”  
  
Jared’s eyes shifted away from the pyramid to the other man. He’d grown more and more quiet as they got closer to the pyramid and Jared didn’t know what to think of it. He could toss it off as Jensen’s promise to talk when they arrived, but he felt it was something else, something more that was causing the enigmatic man to close in even further on himself. “I thought you were as keen to solve this mystery as I was?”  
  
Jensen snorted. “I was. I still am. I just … there are some secrets that aren’t meant to be revealed Jared. Do you think this is one of them?”  
  
Jared looked away from Jensen’s earnest green eyes, wondering how the title Green-eyed seemed more like a rendering of his soul than a simple description. He didn’t know how to answer the question. “I think they wanted us to find it, but this place … this valley has been at peace for a long time. I know that when we walk into that valley that we do so with chaos.”  
  
“And you’ll still go down?”  
  
He didn’t like the way Jensen said it, said you’ll instead of we’ll but he knew that Jensen had to make his own choice, even if he would be disappointed if the other man didn’t follow. He nodded. “I need to. Something is calling me here.”  
  
“I don’t know what it is about this place, but I don’t want to go down there.” Jensen said honestly. He waited until Jared was looking at him to continue. “There are other mysteries we could solve, other secrets that need discovered. We could go anywhere.”  
  
He knew the offer was real, the need in his eyes to walk away was almost overpowering and Jared felt his conviction waiver. Then he was by himself, the world around him falling away and he was staring at a valley yet unmolested. He stood with others, beside people who had suffered and who held so much hatred in their hearts. They stood side by side, looking into the valley, into the peace that still permeated thousands of years after the violation of stone and slavery worked it’s form, and they all fell silent as the overseer took his first steps down into the valley.   
  
He could feel the waves of distrust and animosity but they followed anyway. The man that led them was no merciful man; he had no real compassion for the slaves in his care, nor did he understand why he should. Jared could feel his heart though, could feel the devotion he felt, that they all felt, and knew that while he felt no need to treat them better, he would because of the man he found himself aligned with.   
  
He knew that when the work began they would be treated fairly and would be fed better, that their labor would be more humane and less cruel because of that influence. He knew that in time, a bond would build between the overseer and the slaves under him, that they would come to respect him and he would come to truly care for them. They would all accept that it was because of the man they had come together to honor, even if he would never accept the accolade himself.   
  
His vision cleared and he found himself looking at Jensen still. He didn’t know what it all meant, but he had to get into the valley. He had to get into the pyramid. Whatever they had built, it was for a man that had never wanted it, had never understood how he had affected their lives. They built something momentous for him and he needed to see it opened to the world now.   
  
“I want that.” Jared said softly. “I want to see what else we could find, but I can’t leave this.” He said, shaking his head. “I have to see this through Jensen and I need you to see it through with me.”  
  
Jensen’s eyes were dark with sorrow. “Well see what tomorrow brings Jared.”  
  
He walked off without another word, silently moving through the men and away from the camp, into the desert night. Jared could only hope he came back with the dawn.

 

**

 

Morning came bright and hot, and the camp was already broken down before Jared came out of his tent, having broken his fast in privacy as he prepared for the day.  He'd heard Jensen yelling for the camp to be taken apart, heard him laughing and joking with the men but when he'd gone out, he was no where to be found.  When it was time to take the last trek into the valley, he was gone.    
  
Akil frowned when asked, but his eyes were piercing as he watched Jared's face.  "I warned you about the Green-Eyed.  He has always come and gone like the desert storm."  Jared scanned the faces again and took a deep breath.  "Do you wish to wait for his return?"  
  
Yes, he did, but he couldn't and he knew it.  There was no guarantee that Jensen would come back, that he would join them again.  "No.  Prepare the men to go now."  He said softly.  Akil nodded, patting his shoulder awkwardly as he walked past him.  Jared's eyes continued to search through the men to find Jensen but he knew it was no use.  If he came, it would be in his own time.  
  
He tried not to let it bother him, but even as he started down the trail into the valley his enthusiasm was dampened.  Every time he turned some corner that showed a new angle he wanted to turn and tell Jensen.  Every time he thought to stop for break, he turned to discuss it with him, but the Green-Eyed was gone.    
  
He ignored the pang of hurt as they finally entered the valley.  He thought that he and Jensen had shared a connection, had truly believed that his offer to find more mysteries after this had been honest and real.  It was hard to continue with that thought when he'd disappeared without a word though.  He shook his head, knowing that it was just his own foolishness anyway.  He knew what he wanted from Jensen and sooner or later he'd have acted upon it and the man would have run far from him anyway.  It was probably best for all that he had gone while they were still on friendly terms.  
  
Tents were set up at their new location by a part of the crew, places to eat and places to store water were set up as well, but others went to work on the pyramid, trying to find the way into the General's final resting place.    
  
**

  
They found the entrance a few hours into the search, a lucky break since Jared didn't have the manpower to start a search on all sides at once.  He took the torch handed him by the others and made his way down into the tomb.  He knew from his visions, trusted them, that there were no traps set in this tomb.  Its secret location, they had hoped, would conceal it long enough for the beloved General to join the Gods in the heavens.  When the doors were opened, flares were thrown in so that they could get a good look at the long corridor, but then the others were backing away, giving it some time to let fresh air in.  
  
They took an early supper at that point and Jared sat, watching the entrance.  He wanted to get in, but he knew he needed to wait until morning, give it a chance to air out a little before they could go in and try to see what they could find.  The front area was undisturbed though and the fact that there was no debris was a sign that if there had been grave robbers, they probably hadn't come through this part of the pyramid.  When he slept that night, his dreams were of green eyes and gentle hands covered in calluses that opened the unknown and laid his heart on a platter.  
  


**  
  
As much as he wanted inside, he waited, made himself take a full breakfast.  He wanted to rush in but something held him back.  He realized what it was as he finished his tea and looked around the valley one more time.  He was still waiting for Jensen, wanting him to be there as he opened the pyramid up and found out about her beloved General.  He was no where to be seen though and as he stood and met Akil's eyes, there was a small sad shake of the head that indicated he hadn't seen the other man either.  
  
"Alright then, let's see what we can find, shall we?"  
  
Akil's smile was warm and Jared took a deep breath, letting it infect him.  If Jensen wasn't there, at least he had Akil to share it with.    
  
They took the torches and Jared led the way.  There were no vision to help him through this part and as they reached each crossing, Jared split the men off so they would be able to report back their findings.  They knew what was being asked of them so there was little instruction.  Sounds echoed around them, filling the once silent space and Jared let his hands linger on stone once again, following the path of markers he'd been set.  
  
Men went to their designated spots and came back, reporting what they'd seen but most of it had been dead ends, small rooms with some artifacts but not the tomb that Jared was looking for.  Still, a man at the back made a note of what rooms were where so they could later be found and properly catalogued.    
  
Akil was pressing him to stop, to let them rest for a while when Jared finally came to the door he knew he was waiting for.  Intricate carvings marked the door.  Jared turned back to Akil, but the other man's attention was at the back of the men.  A hush fell over them and they moved to the side as Jensen walked up the way.  They whispered and reached out, smiling or touching lightly at his arms and back.  Jensen smiled back at them, opened his hands and allowed the touch of the superstitious who believed that Green-Eyed was good luck, but his eyes were on Jared the whole time.  
  
Jared took a deep breath and couldn't help the relief he felt as Jensen took up his spot on the other side of Akil.  "I thought you were going to miss out."  Jared said, trying to decide if he should be angry or not.  
  
Jensen smiled though and all he could do was smile back.  "I thought I might as well.  Glad to see I got here in time."  
  
"Me too."  He took one last look at Jensen and then nodded to Akil.  A group of men came forward then, men who knew the tricks that could be used to booby trap the door and that would be able to open it safely if it were.  
  
"You think they put traps in here?"  Jensen asked as Jared moved out of the way and stood by the other man's side.  
  
"No, but Akil is right that we shouldn't take chances.  Just because they left us markers to find the place doesn't mean they didn't want to make sure tomb raiders didn't find it first."  
  
Jensen nodded.  "Just doesn't seem their style."  
  
"I know.  But I can't explain why and the men will be more at ease this way."  
  
Jensen turned to look at him, then nodded.  "You care to explain it to me?"  
  
"You think this is the time for that talk now?"    
  
Jensen shook his head.  "I don't think there will ever be a time for this talk Jared so we might as well do it here while we wait."  
  
The men that weren't involved in opening the door had started to go back to the camp, ready to eat something as they waited.  As much as Jared wanted to run back into the other rooms and see what else had been left for them, he couldn't make himself leave the door so he nodded to Jensen.  
  
"You have a good point."  
  
Jensen nodded, watching him for a second as if judging if he would begin or not.  When he didn't, he sighed softly.  As much as Jared wanted to trust him with all of this he needed this proof, needed to hear Jensen's story before he could tell his own secret.    
  
"There isn't much to tell of my story Jared.  I'm afraid you'd be disappointed to know that the local superstition of me isn't based in any sort of fact."  
  
"All legends start with some fact Jensen.  They all have to start somewhere."  
  
Jensen laughed a little.  "Perhaps, but my story is simple.  What did they tell you of me?"  
  
"You walked out of the desert as a grown man, a man who knew its ways as if you had always been there.  You show up where you want for as long as you want and no one can predict you.  You show up at digs and help them locate treasure and never want to be acknowledged for it.  And you saved us from the sand storm by leading us into the haven of the markers."  
  
Jensen had his water bottle in hand and smiled at it before he took a long swig, then handed it to Jared.  "You were heading to the marker anyway.  You would have survived I think.  I just helped get you there a little faster.  The rest of it though?  I do show up at digs because I like the mystery.  I like to solve things and being in the middle of it makes it that much easier.  I don't do it for credit or fame, I do it just to do it, so I stay as long as I want or as long as I am needed.  If I don't like how a dig is working then I leave.  If there is something of interest, I stay.  It's pretty simple."  Jensen said.  
  
He took another drink when Jared gave him the water back.  "For my past, the desert knows but I don't.  I don't remember anything before this, before I came into these people's lives.  I've seen fancy doctors who thought I might have had some trauma or other, but that's it.  I own nothing; have nothing but what you see.  I'm Jensen Green-eyed to these people and that's enough for me."  
  
"You don't remember anything?"  
  
Jensen shook his head.  "Nothing."  
  
"And where were you when we broke camp?"  
  
Jensen looked down before he looked up, making sure to catch Jared's eyes.  "I get headaches from time to time.  The kind that cause me to black out.  It was coming and I knew I needed to step back.  I'm sorry I didn't explain it to you, but something about this place spooks me Jared.  I don't know why but I feel it."  
  
"Nothing is going to hurt you here."  Jared said, reaching one hand up to squeeze Jensen's shoulder.    
  
"How do you know that?"  
  
"I..."  It was his turn to look down then.  Akil knew because he'd seen what Jared could do, but Jensen had only walked in a few times, had seen nothing that would validate Jared's visions.  Jensen had been honest and open with him though and he could do no less now.  
  
"I have visions.  They credit me with these amazing finds, but it's because they speak to me.  The people who built this place, they've shown it to me, shown the love they built into it.  They didn't make this a place to be feared as the Pharaoh’s of old did.  They wanted the world to know of their love for the General, even if it had to remain a secret for so long.  It's why I have to open it Jensen.  It's why I have to make sure it's seen.  If not, his story dies and their life’s work was for nothing."  
  
He didn't realize he was still gripping Jensen's shoulder until the other man raised his hand to it, resting his hand on Jared's.  "So you think they want you to share this with the world?"  
  
"Yes I do."  
  
Jensen nodded.  "Alright then.” He said with a small smile.  “Let's open this up."  
  
The words were barely out of his mouth when the men gave a loud cheer.  The doors creaked open, sand crackling under foot as they watched.  When there was enough room, Jared and Jensen each took a torch from the men and stepped through the entrance.    
  
More torches waited inside and Jensen moved to them, lighting each in their wall sconce.  Jared walked in, letting Jensen look for anything that might harm them, but his eyes were held by the sarcophagus on the floor.  He knew there were shelves lined with objects of wealth and shabti for the afterlife.  He knew that jewels and gold and gem-covered furniture lay within reach a few feet away, but there was nothing that could take his eyes away from the ornate decorations.    
  
He fell to his knees in front of it, reaching out to touch it.    
  
"Don't."  Jensen's hand caught his own, pulling his hand away.    
  
"What are you doing?"  Jared asked.  
  
Jensen's eyes were filled with fear as he shook his head.  "I don't know, but Jared, please.  Don't."  
  
He didn't know how to answer that because he needed to touch it, needed to brush off the dust and see what lay underneath it but there was real concern in Jensen's eyes and he trusted the other man’s instincts.  He took a deep breath and let Jensen help him to his feet.  They stood for a moment like that, Jared's hand still in Jensen’s when the world around Jared shifted again.  The tomb was alight with color and movement as everything was placed perfectly.  The sarcophagus lay in the center of the room and the slaves that moved did so solemnly, with pride and sorrow etched in their features.  He knew their general was laid to rest there, knew that the doors were soon to be sealed.    
  
With a jolt, he realized that Jensen was still with him, that Jensen was there with eyes closed but tears leaking down his face.  One of the slaves moved closer to Jared, eyeing him as he did.  He walked behind him, then stopped as if to whisper in his ear.  When he spoke they were words Jared couldn't understand but then he was pushed forward into Jensen.  
  
He felt Jensen catch him, felt Jensen's hand around his waist and his fingers tightening in the other.  He felt Jensen stumble and catch himself, leaning into the stone behind him and to get balance he put his hand down on it.  Jared felt an electric shock run through his body as the touched the great tone and he looked up, no longer caught in his vision.    
  
"What happened?"  Jensen asked softly.  
  
Jared knew he wasn't asking about the vision because he was looking down to the sarcophagus that they were now leaning against, fingers entwined against the cold stone Jensen had been so afraid to touch.  
  
Jared shook his head.  "I don't know.”    
  
Jared pulled his hand from Jensen's and stepped back, wanting to apologize for what had happened but not having the words for it.  Jensen's eyes were almost solid green now and there was something vulnerable about him in that moment, something unguarded.  His hand reached up to touch Jensen's cheek, cupping his face gently.  He sensed more than heard the small gasp from Jensen.  The other man didn't back away from it, but watched Jared with utter surprise.  Neither moved and Jared felt like time was standing still for them.  Jensen licked his lips and Jared couldn't help but be drawn to the movement, nor could he stop his thumb from running over Jensen's bottom lip as he bit lightly into it.    
  
"Jared?"  Akil called as he came into the room.    
  
Jared dropped his hand and stepped away as Jensen stalked to the other side of the room.  "Yeah?"   
  
"The others are waiting as patient as they can."  He said with a small smile.  There were certain things Jared demanded of Akil and his men and time alone with the find was one of them.  They were waiting for his okay to enter to the room.  
  
He looked at Jensen and wondered for the first time if it was safe or not.  "Jensen?"  He asked softly.  
  
The other man turned, a pained look in his eyes.  "It's been touched.  We can't undo that."  
  
Neither of them knew what that meant, he could see it in Jensen's eyes but he knew it to be true none the less.  
  
"Let them in Akil.  Get them all in here.  I want everything catalogued before it's taken out and examined.  And I want one man with me for the sarcophagus.  I want to start working on its translation immediately."  
  
"Rubbings?"  
  
"Yes.  Let's get that done first.  Anything with writing Akil."  
  
"Yes Jared."  He said, heading out and barking orders through the door.  There was a frenzied sound but Jared knew if he looked it would be a well organized camp responding to their needs.  
  
"Jensen, are you okay?"  
  
Jensen looked up at Jared and shook his head.  "No.  I need to get out."  He said, moving towards the door.  
  
Jared intercepted him, catching his wrist in his hand.  When Jensen met his eyes, Jared wasn't sure what to say.  "Don't disappear on me again."  His voice was little more than a whisper but he saw Jensen relax a little.  "My cot should be quiet enough if you need to rest."  
  
Jensen nodded slowly.  "Alright."  He pulled his arm free then and started moving.  When he looked back Jared was still watching him.  "And don't forget to eat Jared.  We don't need the both of us down for the day."  
  
Jared let out a little bark of laughter because it was something he was well known for.  Akil would sometimes make him stop for food, or would bring it to him if he wouldn't, but Jared knew somehow that Jensen had already made arrangements for that.  He felt better for the small teasing in the words though, stronger in where they stood.  God, a few more minutes and who knew what he might have done.    
  
He refused to think of how soft Jensen's skin felt under his hand or how he hadn't moved away from the intimate touch.  And if memories of his moistened lips came to mind from time to time while he knew Jensen was in his tent, lying on his cot, he could put it off to wonder about his latest vision, the shock of the sarcophagus, and the mystery that had tied him to his mysterious companion. 

 

**

 

The day was long, but his exhilaration kept him going late into the night. The torches gave him enough light to work by but he could feel the pull of exhaustion as he looked at the rubbings and then back to the sarcophagus. He didn't know what to make of it all, what to think of the man that was lying underneath it. He walked over to it, running his hands on the smooth surface, just feeling the grooves of it. He sat on the floor then, leaning back against it as his head fell back. He closed his eyes, willing the visions to come again but they'd been oddly silent since earlier.   
  
He still didn't know what to think of that. He'd gone to check on Jensen a few times. The last, he'd found him looking disheveled and rumpled, still in Jared's bed, sleeping off the headaches that threatened him with black outs. He hated to see Jensen in pain, but there was something beautiful about the way he looked curled up on Jared's cot. He'd allowed himself to admire the tight hug of his trousers, the muscles of his forearms that showed where his shirt sleeves were folded up, and the beauty of his face.   
  
He wanted to touch so much that he'd found himself standing beside the cot without realizing he'd moved. He watched the way the dieing sun cast shadows across his face, watched the way sleep softened the hard lines of his jaw and relaxed the lines of worry. He could look at those full lips and remember the feel under his thumb, imagine them against his lips and how he'd taste if Jared kissed him. He'd backed away then, knowing how far he'd come from the safe territory he'd wanted to maintain.  
  
When Jensen woke they'd deal with what had happened, that moment, between them. He didn't know what the other man would do. Until he woke though, there was little enough Jared could do but work and wait.   
  
He heard jocular laughs from outside in the main hall but the way the door had been opened kept him from being able to see what was happening. If it was something of the find, they'd let him know. If not, it was just the men having a little fun. Jared thought about joining them but he wasn't sure he had the strength to get up anymore. He laughed a little at himself, thankful that the men in the hall were willing to work so late and wouldn't think too much of an archeologist who fell asleep lying against a sarcophagus.  
  
He closed his eyes to catch more of the laughs in the hall but it was too distant to make out any one voice too clearly. He took a deep breath and relaxed until he heard footprints coming closer. He heard someone else enter the room and the crunch of sand under heel as he came closer.  
  
"All work and no play makes Jay a dull boy." Jensen's voice said with a smile.  
  
Jared opened his eyes to find Jensen crouched in front of him. He sighed, a goofy grin on his face, he knew. "The Green-eyed awakes."  
  
Jensen laughed. "Awakes? I've been helping the men for the last hour when I heard you hadn't come out of here at all today. Didn't I tell you to eat?"  
  
Jared closed his eyes again and smiled. "Since you already had arrangements to have food brought to me I'm sure you realize just how futile that request was."  
  
"Come on Jared. You need some sleep or you'll start telling us your General was a six foot bird who hatched full grown soldiers and led his men with a flaming sword."  
  
Jared laughed as he opened his eyes. Jensen reached for an arm and pulled him up, wrapping it around his shoulder and putting an arm around Jared's waist to steady him. "I could walk on my own."  
  
"Sure you could."  
  
"You aren't babying the men."  
  
"Akil orders them to work in shifts, as he should, and you aren't as smart as them to actually listen to anything your foreman tells you."  
  
"That's what I have you for."  
  
"You don't listen to me."  
  
"You didn't tell me to go to bed before." He felt the heat creep into his face as soon as the words were out.   
  
"Perhaps I thought you smart enough to come to bed earlier."  
  
Jensen's voice was oddly quiet but the Jared yawned and Jensen laughed and they walked the rest of their way back to his tent. He was surprised when he opened the tent flap to see a second cot set up, catty corner to the other. It woke him up as Jensen dropped Jared into one of the cots and sat down on the other.   
  
"I didn't think you'd mind. I didn't want to stop anyone to help me with a tent and I'd already fallen asleep in here already."  
  
Jared shook his head, "No, I don't mind. Makes it easier to find you to begin things anyway." He felt slightly dazed because after the morning in the pyramid the last thing he'd expected was to find Jensen wanting to be in his tent alone with him. He was reading too much into things probably.   
  
"Jared?" He looked up and Jensen was looking down at his hands. "About what happened in the tomb?"  
  
His words were halted by a sharp cry from outside the tents. Jared's eyes went wide as Jensen was reaching for the guns at his belt. He had one as well in case of raiders but he'd never had to use it before. Jensen just nodded, taking a deep breath as he threw himself out of the tent and into the chaos beyond.  
  
Jared followed, surprised at his own feelings of fear, not for himself but for Jensen. He knew the reputation of the Green-Eyed and knew that Jensen was more than capable of handling himself in a fight, but there was knowing and seeing and Jared would give anything to keep Jensen safe from all this.  
  
Chaos described the scene perfectly as raiders on horses came through, setting the tents on fire and attacking the camp. Jensen was already in the middle of it, gun flaring with each bullet. He watched people fall to the ground and pulled his own weapon. He wasn't but a few feet out of his tent when a horse came running past, it's rider tackling Jared to the ground as he jumped off. They fought as Jared tried to free himself but he wasn't a soldier. He was a good shot but fighting like this wasn't something he'd done often so the other man took him easily enough. He felt the gun at his head and heard the scream. "Green-eyed!"  
  
He saw the way Jensen jerked and knew that he'd caught this in his peripheral. Instead of stopping though, he faced off against the man in front of him. Jared knew from swirls of fabric and color that whoever he was facing was considered rich by these people. He watched in avid fascination as the two fought and it was only when the other man overextended himself that Jensen moved gracefully into full motion, catching his attacker by surprise and putting a knife to his throat even as he turned to the man holding Jared.   
  
It was a stand off and the man holding him screamed something to his men. They backed off the camp, coming to stand behind Jared.   
  
"Let him go Green-eyed." Came the gravelly voice of the man still holding the gun to Jared's temple.  
  
Jensen smiled. "Not until he's safe and your men back off."  
  
The man in Jensen's grasp nodded and suddenly the camp was clear of most the men. His own people were mostly watching, but some were working on the fires, trying to put them out. He was grateful for Akil's advice on using the first small room they'd found to store the finds they had already catalogued. He'd hate to find the shabti and vases and ornamental furniture in ruins under destroyed tents.  
  
The man behind him said something to Jensen in a language Jared didn't know but recognized. It was mostly a written language, only a few tribes alive still used it and he'd never become accustomed to the sounds of it. He couldn't follow the conversation at all.  
  
Finally Jensen looked at Jared. "They say they'll back off, but we have to leave by morning."  
  
"They want us to leave the pyramid when we've just opened it up for them?"  
  
Jensen shook his head. "They want it sealed back up. They say it was never meant to be opened."  
  
"It needs to be opened Jensen."  
  
The man behind him spoke quickly to Jensen. He quirked an eyebrow at what was said and then the man in his arms was nodding, continuing whatever was said.  
  
"They say it's cursed." He said looking up at Jared. "That the slaves built this place for a General, but that the Pharaoh found out about it after it was completed. He never found the location, but before he was laid to rest, he found a way to put a spell on this place. They say that when the tomb is opened the Pharaoh's mummy will arise to torment his slave as he did in life, that he will be restored to his full power and will continue to reek havoc on the world until...” he looked at the two men, asking them something in the other language before looking back at Jared and continuing.  
  
"He will reek havoc on the world until the general willing gives his heart to the Pharaoh or until his heart is crushed beneath his feet. Then he will take him to the underworld to be his faithful servant for all eternity."  
  
He closed his eyes and shook his head softly, pained eyes looking up at Jared. "They say we're already disturbed the tomb and they have to try to seal it before the Pharaoh comes for the General. We are to leave everything here, no artifacts can leave. They will seal the doors and that when the Pharaoh comes to collect the General they are bound to fight him."  
  
"Who are they?"  
  
"The descendants of the slaves who built this place. People determined to keep the General out of the Pharaoh’s hands. Jared, they will kill you, they will kill all of us if you don't do as they ask."  
  
He was angry beyond words, unable to understand what was being said really, but that sank in. His people were in danger from these raiders. If he didn't agree to leave then they'd kill them. He nodded slightly. He didn't like it, but he'd come back. With more men for the dig and trained men to fight off any raiders that came for them. He would see the tomb opened though. He would see the General free of that prison he'd been set in.  
  
As he nodded the man behind him let go, holstering his gun. He gave Jared a small shove and he stumbled forward. When Jared was within reach, Jensen lowered his knife. "We leave in the morning." He said to the man he had been holding.   
  
No other words were exchanged but the other man went to his men, riding off into the night as swiftly as they rode in.

 

**

 

Jared waited twenty minutes, watched as Jensen rode back in from seeing that the raiders had truly left them alone, before he turned to Akil. "I want men working in the tomb now. I want a catologue of everything in there, and I want into the sarcophagus tonight."

"Jared," Jensen stood to block the younger man's exit from the tent.  "You promised them we'd be gone at first light."

"And we'll be leaving then.  I have tonight to get this done.  I want to know what's inside there before they loot it."

"They aren't going to loot it Jared.  They don't care about this sort of thing and you know it.  They are going to reseal it."

Jared shook his head.  "I don't care what they plan on doing.  If it's been opened, someone else can reopen it.  I want a full inventory before we leave.  We'll come back as soon as we find enough men to keep us safe."

"And the curse?"

Jared shook his head.  "Do you really believe in curses Jensen?"

Jensen nodded slowly.  "I do.  This place has bothered me since we set foot here.  I think if you do this, you put us all in danger."

"I won't give this up."

Jensen's eyes were hard as he looked at Jared.  "You have until morning.  I'll see you back to Cairo, but then we part ways Padalecki."  He said softly.  "I won't be a part of this any longer."

"Jensen," he gasped the name out.

The other man just walked away though, back tall and rigid as he walked towards the tomb.  He was snapping orders as he went, Akil jumping up from his seat as he heard Jensen telling the men what Jared wanted done.  He almost wanted to call him back, to take it all back so that Jensen would stay with him, but he couldn't.  He didn't believe in curses, but he believed in fate and he was meant to open his tomb up.  He took a deep breath, then walked back into the tomb, prepared to work through the night to get what he wanted.

Things were going quickly for them.  He was happy about that, even if he wasn't happy about a lot of other things.  There were some rooms he were sure had false walls and hidden treasures, but for now men moved back and forth, listing what they could find instead of doing more extensive research.  They had crude rubbings of the inner wall reliefs and while Jared would have rather spent hours looking at the walls and inscribing them, or tackling the sarcophagus itself, they had a tight deadline.

"We're ready."  Akil said softly at his side.

Jensen was there, in the background, never close to Jared, never making eye contact more than a moment before his anger was made clear and he turned away.  It spurred Jared on though, made him more determined to get this done tonight.  The men were waiting for him as he walked over.  He took a moment to see how they had it set up, they way they'd decided would open the sarcophagus without damaging the box, the lid, or the contents, and nodded.  He noticed Jensen take his place with the men but still on the other side, away from him.  He didn't try to make eye contact that time. 

"We don't need it all the way off.  Let's just get a peek inside, alright?"  Jared said with a smile for the men.  They knew their job and had no fear of damaging anything.  He needed to get it open to see what was inside, but he didn't have the manpower it would take to be able to lift the heavy slab back on even if he'd had the time.  He needed to look inside and see the state of the mummy and what treasures might have been buried on his body, then they would seal it back up again.  Akil gave the count and they were all moving as one, pushing and pulling and heaving to get the tomb lid to move along the contraption they'd devised.  It took three attempts before they were able to do it and then they were cheering. 

The mummy was perfecty preserved and with it, a number of beautifullly decorated pieces of jewelry that fit his stature in life.  His body was not as finely decorated as a Pharaoh would be, but it was obvious he had been given a great many gifts.  Jared smiled down at the mummy, a strange sense of right in what he'd done.  He looked up to catch Jensen's eyes, wary and alarmed, watching the tomb and it's exit as if something was coming.  Jared felt his own exhileration dampen.  "Alright men, we have more work to do."  He said, getting them back on task.

They worked late into the night, until they finally had to give way to break down the tents and prepare for their journey home.  Jared was determined to come back, and in the mean time he had the translations to work on as they traveled.  The men were excited, knowing that they would be back in force.  Jensen and Akil were the only men silent as they rode out of the valley.  No one noticed the few small artifacts that went missing because they weren't accounted for on the ledgers, and only one person seemed to notice the small necklace that had been grasped tightly in the mummy's hand.  No one noticed it missing. 

Not anyone in the valley at least.

 

**

 

There was no guard as they left the valley, no raiders waiting to see if they kept their word. Akil said it was because the Green-Eyed was among them and he would see they kept their word but Jared was sure it was because they were watching from a place they couldn’t be seen. He hated that they were leaving, but he couldn’t see any other way around it. They needed to come back with more strength. He knew where to get the right sort of men. It would only take a couple days to round them up, a brief delay that would drive him insane, but that was necessary none the less. 

Jared kept his eyes to the front, always looking towards his men and never to the back of the caravan where he knew Jensen was riding.  He wanted to go back and talk to him, wanted to set things right between them, but he didn’t know how.  He couldn’t stop and Jensen had made his opinion clear.  He was spooked by something and against all logical judgment he was going to walk away. 

Akil had warned him about this.  He’d told him that Jensen was likely to leave when he wanted and that it would go badly for Jared.  He was glad he hadn’t listened though.  As much as he would miss having Jensen with him for the rest of their journey, he’d been there for part of it.  He couldn’t regret that.

They stopped for a quick meal at lunch and Jared let himself look for Jensen once.  The other man sat among the workers, but there was a tightness to his face even when he laughed with them.  Jensen looked up and caught him eye, but he looked away, quickly joining Akil before he could think better of it and try to talk to Jensen.

That night he went to his tent as soon as it was up.  He spread the rubbing of the sarcophagus out in front of him and forced himself to concentrate on that, ignoring the sounds of the men around him.  Normally, it wasn’t a problem.  He was worried about Jensen though, worried about losing the connection he had to the man, whatever it was, and it was keeping him from focusing like usual. 

He heard the rustling as the tent flap was pushed up and Akil came in with his dinner.  “Thank you Akil.”  He said with a small smile.  “I was just thinking it might be time to eat.” 

Akil smiled back at him.  “Which means you were just about to get caught up in something again.”

“Am I that predictable?”  Jared asked. 

“Perhaps.”  The other man said, taking a seat close to Jared.  “The Green-eyed is very observant though.  He said you would not join the men tonight.”

“Jensen?”

“He was worried and asked that I see you get some food.  He takes good care of you Jared.”

“And yet he’s going to leave.”

Akil nodded.  “Yes.  You can respect a man, but not always follow the same path.”

“Are you speaking of me, or him?”

Akil smiled sadly, “Both.”  He stood up and walked to the tent flap but turned back around.  “He puts on a good face Jared, but there is something bothering him as well.  Perhaps it would do you both well to talk about it.”

Jared nodded.  “Thank you Akil.” 

The other man left his tent and Jared took a deep breath.  He had no intention of checking up on Jensen.  Jensen was leaving and no matter what Akil said, it felt like betrayal.  It made him feel more than guilty for his own need to talk to Jensen, like a betrayal of his own beliefs, which seemed even worse than Jensen leaving.  Since his arrival Jensen had turned Jared upside down with nothing but green eyes and companionship.  He ached to talk to Jensen, but he refused.  Instead he set his food down by the rubbing, took a bite and started working on the translation.

 

** 

 

Nothing changed.  Two days later they were still traveling towards Cairo.  They were only two more days out, thanks to more traveled roads as they moved into familiar territory and Jared spent more and more time translating.  The sarcophagus was covered with stories of the General, talking about his wisdom and his compassion.  Jared was translating his history, the story of a slave who showed high intelligence as a child and became a scribe.  His work there, along with a quick thinking mind eventually earned him a military rank.  It was an amazing story, how his treatment of others became the paragon of behavior and how others began to emulate him.  Indeed, the sarcophagus stated that even the Pharaoh began to notice the general.  He shared the story with Akil, who took it out to the fires, telling the men about Jared's translations.  More than once he heard Akil talking about Jared's translation abilities and how he was one that read the language like he had been born speaking it.  He just laughed when Akil began calling him Jared Quick-Tongue, though he understood that Akil was honoring him with the name and not teasing. 

He spent all his meals working on the translation and too much of his nights as well.  He was exhausted and he wanted nothing more than to fall asleep in his cot but there was still so much to do.  He'd have to see if he could get another linguist to come with him if he could.  There were a few at the museum but they might not be willing to come with him because of the raiders.  He would have to see.  A glance at the rubbings might sell one or two on the adventure.  As much as he hated to admit it, he was one of the few linguists working in the area that wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty.  He was the only one that seemed to thrive on it.  With a shake of his head, he pulled the rubbing out of the protective case and spread it on his makeshift desk.

He didn't know how long he was at it when he heard the telltale rustle of his tent flap.  Akil, or one of the men bringing him food.  He made a point of walking with the men during their travels, talking to them as much as he could to keep their spirits high.  He did it for morale and to keep them from wondering why he spent all his meals working.  Akil understood him and soothed the men and between them, his men had never questioned Jared's concern over their welfare.  They seemed to take it in an amused fashion and in some ways they treated him a little like an overexcited child.  They followed his orders and did as told, but they also tried to tease him into eating with them, joked about taking his rubbings away so he would sleep at night. 

"You can set it over there."  He said, pointing to a side table.  He didn't notice much more than the soft clink of the dishes being set down or the smell of warm food because he was too caught up in the translation.

"I might take offense to being dismissed so easily if I didn't know what you were working on."

He looked up immediately, Jensen's voice sounding tired and drawn, but there was a small smile on his face as he watched Jared.  "Mind if I join you?"

He could see then that Jensen had brought in enough food for two.  "Of course."

"That means you'll have to stop working for a little while."  Jensen teased.

Jared gave a small smile back.  It didn't feel like it had.  There was still a lot of anger and hurt between them but he was willing to give in to this.  He wanted to.  He didn't want to part way with Jensen in two days and never hear from him again.  "I think I can take a break." 

Jensen nodded as he took a seat next to the small table.  It wasn't a lot of space and they bumped knees as they ate.  It was quiet and Jared was thankful for that.  He didn't know what to say to Jensen and he wasn't sure he wanted to hear what the other man thought of him at the moment.  They didn't agree on what needed to be done, but there was something more to it.  He didn't think Jensen wanted to end their working relationship anymore than Jared did but they were both moving in different ways.  Akil was right though.  As much as he felt betrayed that Jensen would walk away, the man was honorable and they shared a connection that he felt would be insane to throw away.  Jensen seemed to understand him.  He did things before Jared asked for them, had the men moving in directions Jared wanted without having to discuss it first. 

"Thank you," he managed to say when they finished eating.  He looked up at Jensen and saw the small hope there. 

"You're welcome," he answered back, his smile small, but there.  "The men are worried about you.  You aren't sleeping and it's starting to show."

Jared nodded.  "I can't seem to set it down,"  he said honestly. 

"Now i'm worried."  His voice was soft and there was an exasperated note there.  When Jared looked up, Jensen nodded to the translation.  "You don't have to have it done before we reach Cairo."

"I know.  I just... I know you don't like it, but i'm drawn to this.  I can't let it go."

"Yeah."  Jensen said with a sigh as he stood.  He turned away from Jared, but he wasn't leaving.  He just looked at the tent wall as if he could see past it.  "Your visions.  Do you think they might want something from you that you can't give?"

"What?"

"Eveything they want of you goes against my instincts Jared.  I've stayed alive a long time trusting my instincts, but I know what I saw in that tomb with you.  I know that your vision, whatever it wants from you, it forced us to touch the sarcophagus when I asked you not to.  That's what really bothers me."

They hadn't talked about it, not when it happened and not after.  He didn't know what to say about it now.  He was terrified that Jensen would bring up that moment between them, where Jared had caressed Jensen's bottom lip with his thumb, where he'd been moments away from leaning forward and kissing him.  Jensen wasn't talking about that, but it was too close for comfort. 

"Have your visions always manipulated you like that?' 

Jared shook his head.  "No.  To be honest most of my visions are just glimpses of something.  Nothing has even been this elaborate.  And... "

"What?"

"They're reacting to you.  There was a time, in the cavern with the markers, they recognized you, called your name.  I still don't know what to make of that."

Jensen nodded.  "Have you had any other visions since the Sarcophagus?"

"No.  Without any of the artifacts to surround myself with it's harder to sense anything about the pieces."

"So it could be that these visions are connected to the actual pieces, and that anyone that touched them would see it."

Jared frowned.  "I don't know.  I suppose there could be something to it, but i've always been able to sense things, not just on this find.  I don't see how the visions would influence anyone else if I wasn't there."

Jensen raised a hand to his forehead, rubbing across it as he nodded.  "Of course."

"Jensen, are you alright?"

He heard the other man take a deep breath before turning to look at him.  It was the first time in days that he'd really looked at Jensen.  His eyes were tight and Jared could see pain etched behind them.  His brow was furrowed and his lips were set in a thin white line.  Dark circles ringed his eyes and he looked unsteady on his feet.  "Jensen?"

"I'm fine Jared.  The headaches, that's all."

"Sit down.  Please," he added as Jensen hesitated.  Jared pushed him over towards his cot and made him sit there.  He crouched in front of him.  "Are they always this bad?"

"I don't normally have them this often.  Sometimes... on a dig they'll come.  I'll be fine."

"You aren't sleeping any better than I am, are you?"  Jared asked.

Jensen closed his eyes and didn't protest as Jared pushed him back, making him lie flat on the cot.  "Suppose not."  He said softly. 

Jared took a deep breath as he pulled a small stool over to the cot and sat beside it.  He didn't like this at all.  He didn't like that his visions were out of control and Jensen's headaches were just as bad.  "Are they related?"  He asked aloud, because he couldn't help but think their paths had been thrown together for some reason.  The visions wanted Jensen with him at this discovery, he was certain of it.  They wanted the Green-eyed and they'd found a way to make it happen.  He thought about what Jensen had said, about the visions and the artifacts and it made him consider the connection for a moment.  "Are your headaches worse because of my visions?"

Jensen let out a small huff.  "You think a lot of yourself, don't you?"

"Of course."  Jared said softly, looking down to see Jensen's eyes closed and a smile on his lips.  He felt the urge to lean forwad and brush his lips against Jensen's but he shook his head instead.  "I just feel like i'm missing something big Jensen and you and I are both caught in it."

He started to stand and felt Jensen's hand around his wrist.  "Don't go."  Jensen said softly.  "Just... leave it for tonight.  You need to rest too." 

He held his breath for a minute, trying to think of anything to say, but there was something in Jensen's eyes that made him go completely blank.  When he took a deep breath he finally nodded.  "Alright.  Just let me... i'll be right back."  He ducked his head out quickly and the men sprang into action, moving another cot into his tent.  He moved the stool out of the way and when the men were gone he pushed the cot up against the other.  He turned his lamp off and crawled into the other cot.  He reached out, feeling Jensen's hand and squeezing it softly.  The other man returned it, but instead of drawing back from the contact, he pulled Jared's hand a little closer and just held on. 

The silence covered them as completely as the darkness, but it was comfortable now.  There was comfort in being that close to Jensen and he felt himself relaxing for the first time since they'd left the tomb.  He closed his eyes and let out a deep breath.  "Good night Green-eyed."

He was almost asleep before he heard the slurred response.  "Nite Quick-tongue."  He fell asleep with a smile on his face and his hand held tightly in Jensen's.

 

** 

 

They were back to themselves the next day, laughing and smiling and Jared felt the lightness in the men also.  Even if they hadn't broadcast the argument between them, the tension had been palpable.  Jensen pulled him from his translations a few minutes as they stopped for lunch and made him relax with the men before letting him return to it and he felt the translation was easier for the small breaks.  At night, he forced Jared out of his tent for the nightly meal.  He slept better, but after the first night, he watched as Jensen continued to wake exhausted and frustrated.  Each day the headaches became worse and Jared could see Jensen pulling in on himself, wrapping the tagelmust tighter as if he could keep the world at bay.  He tried everything he knew to help Jensen, teas and herbs that were known to help with aches and he tried to rub the tension from his shoulders.  Neither worked and while Jared was more than happy to keep trying, having his hands on Jensen's shoulders was far too tempting so he only did it at night when the pain of the day seemed too much.

The last leg of their journey, he kept Jensen at his side.  They were safe from marauders at that point and Akil was staying to the back of the caravan to keep an eye on the men.  Jensen kept his back straight as he rode, but Jared could see the way the pain edged through him.  He talked softly, comfortingly he hoped, about what he'd been able to translate and his hopes.  While Jensen didn't want to go back to the tomb, he'd shown that he had no animosity for Jared for doing it, he just wouldn't be part of it.  He also talked about other things he wanted to look for.  There were a number of things he could imagine sharing with Jensen, adventures that would take them all over the world.  Jensen had given him a pained smile as he mentioned the next adventure and it had encouraged Jared to keep talking about other things, to let Jensen know that he thought of him as a partner and friend and he wanted him to be a part of it with him.

"We're almost there Jensen."  Jared said softly as he could make out the outline of his place.  He thought about going to the apartment in the city, but he wanted to keep his return quiet and his manor home was a better place for that.  it was on the outskirts of town and closer anyway and the way that Jensen was looking would have made that decision even if Jared had been inclined otherwise. 

"Jared, we will leave you here."  Akil said, motioning to the men.  "I will come back in the morning with news."

"Thank you Akil.  Send my regards to your family, to all of theirs as well."

Akil smiled as he left and Jared watched them go for a moment, watched as they took off towards the smaller district that most of the men came from.  It was only ten more minutes before they were riding up to the gates of the manor.  He dismounted and opened the gate.  "Come on Jensen, just a little further and we'll be home."

He'd been saying similiar things for the past three hours.  Jensen looked on the verge of passing out and Jared knew it was only his determination that kept him from falling apart in front of the men.  Jared's porter came running and Jared sent him running back up to the house to prepare the guest room and to call for the doctor.  When Jensen dismounted, he held tight to the reins for a minute before he turned to face Jared.  He nodded slightly, but his step was off balance and Jared reached for him, putting his arm under the other man's and helped support him as they walked into the house.

His people let him through without question, another of the servants helping grab Jensen's other side to get him up the steps.  He had him laid out on the clean linen before his maid showed up, a matronly woman who took his welfare far too seriously.  "A little dusty I see."  She said with a small smile.

He nodded.  "The both of us."  When he looked back at Jensen though he could see that the pain was leaving his face as he fell into sleep.  He was afraid it was more than sleep, that he'd finally sucummed to the black outs, but that was why he'd called for the doctor already.  "I'll just get cleaned up quickly.  The doctor should be to call soon and I should try to be presentable.  Please let me know when he arrives."

"Will you be in your rooms?"  She asked.

He shook his head.  "Bring my bags up here.  I'll start working on the translations in here.  Just, be careful not to wake him."

She looked down at Jensen and shook her head.  "I don't think anything would wake him now."

"That's a little of what i'm afraid of."

 

** 

 

When the doctor left, Jared paced outside the room for a few minutes before knocking lightly at the guest room door.  "Come in."  He heard from the other side.  He hesitated a moment, not sure what to do with the doctor gone and left alone with Jensen.  He took a deep breath though and opened the door.  Jensen had woken when the doctor was there and while Jared talked to the doctor afterwards, he'd heard Jensen asking the maid if there was a bath he could use.  When Jensen had disappeared, he'd made mention to the maid that they should see if they could bring some clean clothes up for him as well.  Now, cleaned up and wearing Jared's clothes, he sat on the bed, looking almost lost.  Jared didn't like that look on him at all, though something about Jensen in his clothes was doing bad things to his libido.

"You look a little better."  Jared said softly as he walked in. 

Jensen looked at him, a small smile on his face.  "Thank you.  I owe you," he said softly, looking around the room.  "for all of this."

Jared knew what he meant.  For the doctor, the clothes, taking him in.  "No, you don't.  I take care of the people I work with and I take care of my friends even better.  Just relax and let me help you."  Jensen nodded as he took a deep breath and then he was shaking his head, lowering it into his hands.  "Jensen?"  He moved over to the bed, sitting beside the other man.  "Talk to me.  Tell me what's happening, please?"

"I think i'm going crazy Jared.  Ever since..."  He took a deep breath.  "That vision, I can't seem to get clear of it.  When I dream I'm surrounded by these people and they all look up to me, but I can't do anything to help them.  They think I can, they think I will, but I can't and won't and it never matters what I tell them.  They stare at me, just like in that damn vision.  They reach out to touch me like the men do now only it's not for luck but for love and I don't deserve it."

Jared nodded, but he wasn't sure what else he could do.  He reached over and ran his hand across Jensen's shoulders, felt the muscle tense and roll under his shirt.  "You said you felt connected to the marker?  And these raiders were remnents of the slave's descendants?  Maybe you are connected to all of this some way too.  Maybe the visions are trying to speak to you also."

Jensen shook his head.  "Why?  And why is it causing me to black out?  You never seem to be bothered by them." 

His words were half accusation and half question but Jared felt like this was something he understood.  "Maybe because I've accepted them as something that's a part of my life.  You dont' want them to intrude on you and maybe that's the difference.  Maybe if you just relaxed and let it happen, it wouldn't hurt you."

"I just want it to stop.  I said it before Jared, that man... he didn't deserve what they did for him.  No man deserves that sort of sacrafice and devotion.  How am I supposed to accept these visions when they keep trying to show me that I'm wrong?  They built a monument in stone and blood and no man who deserved that sort of devotion would want that.  What sort of man was he really Jared?"  Jensen asked.  "What sort of man could allow those people to do that?  And who were these people that they did this thing?  We don't know anything about them, and yet they're moving us towards something.  I don't understand what, but I feel it, like the edge of the wind in the desert that feels like a storm.  They mean for us to be caught in something and they won't stop until they are."  Jensen took a shuddered breath.  "It's why I can't continue Jared.  They're pushing us both and I can't do this, knowing its going to put you in danger."

Jared could see the tension etched into his face, the pain and fatigue eating away at his normal calm exterior.  There was only so much he could expect himself to hold back and when Jensen turned liquid eyes to him he broke.  He pulled at Jensen, wrapping him up in his arms.  "I'm sorry Jensen."  It was all he could offer.  He held him close and he felt Jensen's hands grab the back of his shirt, gripping it tight, he knew he'd made the right choice.  As much as he feared Jensen would pull away, the other mean was holding on like his life depended on it.  He didn't know what else to say, so he didn't say anything.  He just let his hands rub soothing circles across his back.  When he felt Jensen start to pull back, he let go too. 

"Alright?" 

Jensen shook his head softly.  "No, I don't think so."

Jared nodded.  "It's going to be alright Jensen.  You can rest here for a few days and then we'll be gone.  You won't have to worry about this anymore."

Jensen nodded.  He didn't look like he believed it anymore than Jared felt it, but he seemed to take comfort from the words Jared gave him anyway.  "How long until you leave?"

Jared looked down at his hands for a minute.  "A few days.  I need to get enough men together.  Akil is going to stop by in the morning and I'll have a better idea after that."  Jensen just nodded.  "I should let you get some sleep."  He stood to go and didn't stop until he was at the door.  He tried to keep himself from looking back, but he did.  Jensen was watching him and when their eyes met Jensen let out a deep breath. 

"Don't go just yet."

Jared didn't say anything.  He let his hand fall from the doornob though.

"I slept better the other night with you there.  It's the only time they've stopped."

Jared didn't trust his voice.  Instead, he went to the lamp and lowered it.  Walking to the other side of the bed, he kicked his shoes off and crawled up onto the bed on the other side of Jensen.  They weren't touching this time, but as Jared shifted onto his side, Jensen did the same, letting their eyes meet as the darkness fell around them again.  Jared didn't know what to say.  He was going to let himself stay long enough for Jensen to fall asleep, then he'd get up.  He had his translations after all.  He could work on them in the room while he waited for Jensen to wake, or until he was too tired and he could return to his own rooms.

"I'm supposed to be protecting you."  Jensen broke the silence, sounding a little like a small child, pouting because he didn't get to play with his favorite toy.

"There will be plenty of other adventures for you to protect me from.  Besides, I already owe you my life twice over.  The least I can do is repay you with a good night's sleep."  He could see Jensen relax at that.  "Jensen... I... "

"Very artiulate for a lunguist, Quick-Tongue."  Jensen teased.

Jared laughed softly, the sound of Jensen's laughter joining his.  "Just sleep Jensen.  It will all seem better in the morning."  Jensen nodded, then closed his eyes.  Jared watched him for a while, ignoring the impulse to reach out and touch the other man.  He didn't last more than a few minutes before his own eyes closed and he fell asleep.

 

**

 

Breakfast the next morning was a quiet affair. Jared had woken first, scrambling out of the bed so fast he'd fallen to the floor and barely managed to make it out of the room before Jensen woke. At least, he hoped. The looks Jensen gave him over breakfast were questioning though and he still wasn't sure if it was because of this vision induced connection between them, or because of the more personal issues that Jared was having. Jensen looked better than he had though. There was a trace of tension in his eyes, but the medication the doctor had given him seemed to have alleviated the pain. The dark circles under his eyes were less pronounced and Jared hoped that a small measure of that, at least, was due to his care.   
  
"Are you anxious for Akil's word?" Jensen asked as the maid took the last of the breakfast plates away.  
  
Jared shook his head then looked up at Jensen. The other man just stared at him for a minute and Jared smiled. "Yes. It's too early for word just yet, but yes I am. I understand what you said, about the raiders wanting to seal the place up, but just because we left doesn't mean others will. By opening the doors, we let in any other tomb raiders that wanted to stake a claim."  
  
"They won't let that happen Jared, and I’ll tell you now that you had best take a lot of men, because they won't quit. They've dedicated themselves to this task and they will not let their ancestors down."  
  
Jared nodded. "I know."  
  
"And you'll continue anyway."  
  
"Yes." He could see the anger just behind Jensen's eyes and Jared stood up swiftly. "Come on then. While we're waiting the least I can do is show you around the place. Not much really, but I don't need much. The grounds are beautiful though." He grabbed Jensen by the arm and pulled him upright, not allowing him a chance to say no. They only had a few days after all, and they both knew Jensen was right. And if he was, there was a chance that Jared might not make it back.  
  


**  
  
The afternoon was a bevy of industry. At lunch Akil showed up and told Jared he could have the men ready in three days. Jensen left them to finish lunch and Jared watched him stroll out into the gardens at the back of the property. Akil didn't say anything but Jared dismissed him quickly to get to the business at hand. He had orders to get their supplies restocked for the proper number of men. He also made an inquiry for the whereabouts of one of the linguists he knew. He had hopes that the man would come with them, but he wouldn't know until he spoke with him. He received word that he'd be at the library until late in the evening and Jared decided to stop by after dinner. The other linguist was an American, like himself, and had always had a kind smile for Jared when he'd been fresh to Egypt. He'd never forgotten it and the mentoring role the other man had played had developed into a real friendship. He hoped the bottle he was going to gift him with tonight would be a reminder of that. He hoped when he showed him the translation the promise of working together on such a spectacular find would be enough.  
  
For dinner, Jared arranged to meet with Akil again at a fashionable restaurant close to the museum. Jensen went with him though they spoke little. Akil was agitated as they took their seat in a private booth at the back. Jared waited until their orders had been taken and the drinks arrived before he asked. "Tell me what's upsetting you Akil."  
  
"I went to speak to a few of the men today, to get them ready for the departure. They are talking about the curse Jared. Three of the men have disappeared and before you ask, they are men I have known for years. They would not just leave without telling me and they would certainly not leave without telling their families." He looked down for a moment and Jared read shame into the glance. He looked up to see Jensen regarding Akil, as if he sensed the same thing. "I was told... they are the type of men who might have walked away with something from the tomb though. We were ordered to take nothing and I made sure the orders were given, but they could have hidden something and taken it. The men say the curse has come to call on them for taking from the tomb."  
  
Jared shook his head. "That's ridiculous Akil. There is no such thing as a curse."  
  
"You say that Jared, and I know you believe it, but you are one of the few there who did not feel the weight of a curse in that valley." Akil looked at Jensen who just sighed, rubbing his forehead with his fingers as if the headaches were returning.  
  
"Those men were not raiders Jared. They were on a sacred quest and you want to defy them. I will follow you back there, because I believe in what you see, but I have a great fear for you if you continue."  
  
  
The meal came soon after and it was even more quiet than their previous meals, all three men wrapped in the silence of their thoughts. When they were done, Jared convinced Akil to come with them to meet the linguist. The museum was dark as they entered but they could hear whispered words drawing them towards the back. Jared knew the way well, knew that the archives and older manuscripts were kept there, and pulled out only when a scholar asked specifically for them.   
  
He heard the voices more clearly as they approached and he recognized his friend Jim immediately. It was Jensen who pulled a gun and pushed Jared behind him as they rounded the door. "Raider!"  
  
The other man's eyes were wide as he looked up to see the barrel of the gun pointed at him.  
  
"Jared! What do you think you're doing son?" Jim asked, staring between the leader of the raiders who had held a knife to Jared's throat and back to Jensen with his gun held at the ready.  
  
"He tried to kill me!"  
  
"They opened the tomb."  
  
Jim shook his head and looked towards Jensen. "Put your weapon away Green-Eyed. Ain't no one gonna get shot in the museum today."  
  
Jensen looked at Jared and lowered his weapon when he nodded. "Jim. I think I’d like to know what this is about." He said, indicating the other man.  
  
"Jahde is an old friend. We met when I was fresh off the boat from America." He said with a smile for Jared. "Half the things I taught you about fitting into the nomadic lifestyle of the desert people come from Jahde." When Jared's face didn't soften at all, Jim lost his smile.   
  
"He tried to kill me Jim."  
  
"I threatened to kill you. If I had been trying, you would have been dead."  
  
"Threaten him again, and you'll be dead."   
  
Jensen's voice rippled over Jared's skin, like a desert snake preparing to attack. He wanted to laugh at the absurdity of it since Jensen wasn't going to be around to protect him anyway, but he wanted answers more than anything else. "Jim," he said, getting the other men’s attention. "Explain to me why the raider who charged into my find is your friend."  
  
"I should have known you were up to no good when you just up and disappeared with no notice." Jim said, taking a seat behind one of the desks. "You went after the tomb of the general. It's the tomb that these men have sworn to keep hidden."  
  
"Yes, we established that much on our own. I can't walk away from this Jim."  
  
"Why not? You won't win this battle Jared. You'll just get yourself and a lot of men killed."  
  
"Because of a curse?" The question was more of a demanded explanation and Jim looked to Jahde.  
  
"How many men have you lost?" Jahde looked past Jared to ask Akil.  
  
"Three have now gone missing."  
  
"Because they stole something from the tomb. The Pharaoh has arisen and he's collecting what pieces of the General he can. Send word to your men. If they took something from the tomb, they are dead." He looked at Jared then. "We warned you about this."  
  
Jared stood straighter. "There is no reason to believe these men's disappearances were part of some curse," he said with a sigh. "If they were trying to sell the pieces on the market they could have been killed for them, or it could be coincidence, or the men could just have gone away, nothing mysterious at all. You're making assumptions."  
  
Akil looked at Jared and shook his head. "You have visions but you deny the curse."  
  
"Visions?" Jahde looked at him, his anger covered with sudden curiosity.  
  
Jared sighed but Jim knew of it already so he didn't need to worry about his colleague's opinion of him. He'd been the one to help Jared deal with them at the time. "Yes. I sometimes get visions when I touch artifacts."  
  
"And you had visions of this tomb?" Jahde asked. "Tell me."  
  
Jim was watching with interest and Jared sighed. "It's why I can't let this rest. The visions, they want the tomb open. The created a pyramid for this man, a place of beauty and peace for him and they want it to be seen. They want it opened so that the world can know of him." He felt himself pressed into a chair by Jensen. Akil took a seat to one side, but Jensen stayed at his back, a protective, calming presence at his back. He began then, talking about the sarcophagus they'd found with the first scroll and what he'd learned from it. He told them of his journey to the marker and how Jensen had come to their aid. He spoke of his visions then and when he was done he continued on to the tomb and what he'd felt there. He didn't talk about the visions and the way they reacted to Jensen and he didn't mention the way Jensen had been apprehensive to touch the sarcophagus or how the visions had manipulated them into it. He could feel the displeasure rolling off of Jensen but if the other man wanted to mention it, he would.   
  
"Your visions are very clear then. The story they give you is the same as what we have passed down over the generations. I can understand why you wanted to be inside the tomb Jared." Jahde said as he rose. "There are more than a few of us who would like to stand at this man's feet and thank him in the way our ancestors could not. These visions though, they don't consider what else is to come. The Pharaoh's curse is not a joke and it is not something to laugh lightly at. He will kill anyone who stands in the way of him and his general."  
  
"Why?" Jared demanded. "Why was everyone so afraid of what the Pharaoh would do? Why would he put a curse to take his own soul from the afterlife and wrap it around this one man?" He knew it was true, whether he believed in the curse or not, he knew that the Pharaoh had intended to do just that with the curse, but he hadn't been able to translate far enough to find out why. He just kept at it, hoping there would be a reason in the end.  
  
"Love."  
  
Jared snorted. "What you say of the Pharaoh has nothing to do with love."  
  
"No, but the General was loved by most and he was loyal to the Pharaoh. Some said that his devotion to him was bordered on love, but the Pharaoh would never be able to look at him as anything more than a slave who had risen in his ranks. It is said that while the General never openly loved anyone, that in the end, he had given his heart to another. When the Pharaoh found out, he had the other killed and told the General that he was his property and that no other could touch him. He never took another lover for fear of what the Pharaoh would do, but he would not let the Pharaoh touch him after that either, not willingly and it drove the Pharaoh mad. The pyramid that his people built was not a place to honor him, but a place to give him another chance. They did not build it to seal his body, but to allow his soul to be free. The built it so that someday he would find love."  
  
"And yet you want to stop me."  
  
Jahde nodded. "They wanted to give him something more than an Afterlife with the Gods, but they did not understand the depths of the Pharaoh's obsession. After the General died, the Pharaoh had an artifact given to him, to seal the curse to him. When his body was stolen from the City of the Dead, it was taken with him. The curse said that when the sarcophagus was opened that the Pharaoh would rise from his slumber and he would kill all things in his path until the General was before him again. He would not rest and he would give no mercy. When the General was before him again, he would demand his heart, or he would crush it under heel and take his immortal soul into the heavens to be his eternal slave. The makers were trying to give him something better than his life had allowed, but what they did was to give the Pharaoh the chance to steal his soul, for all eternity."  
  
They were all silent for a moment as Jahde's words penetrated. Jared could believe the Pharaoh was capable of it, of trying to control a man who was completely devoted to him but whom he would never love. It wasn't possible though. Having visions of the past was one thing. A creature like that coming through time to avenge anyone he thought stood between himself and the General though? No, he didn't believe in it. The visions were nothing more than a spiritual residue that these people's love and devotion left behind. It was why he didn't feel it with everything he touched. There had to be something strong to embed enough energy into an artifact that he could sense it so many centuries later.   
  
No one spoke but then Jensen was stooping in front of Jared. His eyes looked pained and not just that, he looked scared. Jared reached out instinctively, grabbing Jensen's shoulder. He didn't know how to comfort the other man but he wanted to. He needed to keep him from looking like that. He took something from his pocket and showed it to Jared. It was an elegant necklace, beautiful beading led to intricately carved figures which stood out in relief on the gold face of the pendant. "See what it has to say to you Jared." He took Jared's hand from his shoulder and held it out, placing the necklace there. He took a deep breath and looked up at Jared, his eyes begging forgiveness as he closed Jared's fingers around it.  
  
Jared did the only thing he could. He didn't understand why Jensen had taken something, but he knew he'd taken this from the sarcophagus. He knew that something was driving Jensen to do it because the man had been so adamant about not touching the thing in the first place. He trusted Jensen though, trusted him because he knew that the visions were pushing out in odd ways and that Jensen was becoming connected to it all. He trusted because he had to. He needed Jensen to be close, needed to know that everything they'd been through had been real. He needed to trust the other man and so he did the only thing that would prove to Jensen that he did. He closed his eyes and concentrated on the circular object in his hand, letting the world fall away from him to be replaced with something much older and darker.

The room was dark and he could feel the sense of foreboding around him. Everything happened in images too fast to take it all in and yet each burned its way into his mind, details easy to recall but only when he thought of them; battles and war rooms, darkened tents and palace luxuries. The Pharaoh never denied him anything once his worth was understood, but his love was never something he would give a slave. He paid for his devotion in other ways and the General followed his lead, taking what he was given with the humility and grace that had won him the hearts of so many.

Images slowed then, images of a whispered rendezvous, of a secret lover and the Pharaoh's temper soared. The General was his in every way and he would not allow anyone else to touch or take what was his. Anger and betrayal wrapped around him until he had killed everyone the General could possibly have cared for. There was no one man, but simple vengeance on anyone that it might have been. He watched as the General confessed his heart, his love for the Pharaoh and that he had never betrayed him, begged for the lives of the people that loved him, but the Pharaoh was too far taken by his rage to see the truth in the slave's eyes. After that, the General let no one close, let no true emotion show as he worked with others, keeping to the Pharaoh's side whenever it was possible.

For years he lived like that, never swerving in his devotion, but his heart grew colder. In time, the Pharaoh demanded his love. The General laughed, then told the Pharaoh he would never willingly give himself over to the other man. He had no wish to give his heart to someone who could not understand such a gift.   
  
The last vision slowed completely and Jared stood in the City of the Dead, watching as the Pharaoh and his wise men worked the curse into the metal and beads, watched as they condemned the General to an eternal servitude. Time slipped past and he knew that while it was still his vision, it was no longer in the past. Something dark hunted the passageways of the tomb, hunting for its prey. He felt the darkness seeping away, moving to the city of Cairo and looking for the artifacts that might lead to the right place, but it was hidden, whatever they were looking for. He felt the jolt of hunger as the darkness looked at him, felt the anger and rage and staggered back from the vision of the General that seared into his mind.  
  
He felt his body rising from its chair as he stumbled away from the thing in his vision. He felt himself falling and Jared pushed away from the hands that were trying to help him. The vision cleared but he couldn't be touched just then, couldn't breath with the other four men so close. He fell backwards and continued to scramble until he gained his feet, holding his hands up to keep them at bay. He took a deep breath and tried to calm himself but he didn't think anything sort of a bottle of brandy would do that. When he had his voice he simply looked at the other men, all standing in a rough semi-circle before him. "It's coming." He said softly.   
  
He couldn’t look Jensen in the eye just yet, but he took a deep breath, trying to calm his racing heart because he knew the truth now and he had to stop the curse he had inadvertently set free. He looked up at Jahde, watching the way his jaw clenched underneath his black and silver beard. "I think I know how to stop him."

 

**

 

“Jared, what’s going on?”  
  


Jared ignored the question as he pulled the rubbings from the case he carried with him.He’d hoped that presented with the rubbings and an expensive bottle of brandy, Jim would be so enticed he’d join him back at the pyramid.Now, he was just glad he had them handy.He spread them out on the closest desk, feeling Jensen at his back.Jim’s careful hands pulling the other side gently down and placing a small weight on it as Jared did the same.

“Jared.”He felt the hand on his back and knew that Jensen wasn’t going to take being ignored again.As much as he needed to dig into the rubbings, to see if what he was looking for was really there, he knew that Jensen was worried.He didn’t know how to look him in the eye though.He wasn’t sure he should give away everything he knew and if he looked at Jensen he was sure Jensen would see the omission.

He chose to keep his head down as he answered.“It’s here.”He said, pulling aside some of the larger rubbings until he found the small tablet that had been left in the main burial chamber.“I just glanced over it at the time, but it mentioned the Pharaoh.Nothing on the sarcophagus mentions it, but I think the tablet was brought to the pyramid with the body.The tablet was cruder than the other works, the work was hurried and there was no adornment in the setting.It’s why I looked at it in the first place.”He said, remembering how he’d been so focused on the sarcophagus until he’d noticed it.Nothing else stood out as important, but the mismatched work had made him curious.

Jim came over beside him then, looking at the smaller piece.“Jared, you know what this says?”He said after a minute.

It wasn’t a large inscription and it was easy enough to make out.He closed his eyes because there was only one way, according to it, that they would be able to break the curse.“Yeah.”He turned to look at Jahde, standing across the table with Akil at his side.“We have to find the Pharaoh.We have to take the General back to the tomb to stop him.”

“You want us to take the General back to him?You want us to give him up?”

“No.According to the tablet, the only way to stop the Pharaoh is for the General to face him.The Gods will have to decide then, if his heart was worthy of his freedom, or if he belongs to the Pharaoh.”

Jahde’s eyes fell to the floor, his hand rubbing his forehead as he let out a string of curses in the tongue that Jared had heard him speak before.

“You can say that again.”He heard Jensen answer quietly.“Are you sure about this Jared?”There was tension in his voice, apprehension that was bone deep and Jared wished he could make it go away.There was nothing he could do now though, nothing that would stop what he knew had to come.“You’re sure we need to go back to the tomb and drag his body from his resting place to take him to the Pharaoh?”

He closed his eyes.“Yes.”The body wasn’t technically needed, but it would make things easier.If things worked out the way he hoped.If they could defeat the Pharaoh.They had to.Jared couldn’t see another option.He couldn’t let the General rest with the man who had brutalized him so much in life, who had killed everyone he had loved because of an unwarranted jealousy.

He didn’t know how to explain the rest though.He didn’t know how to explain what else they needed to take, who they needed to take so he turned around, afraid to look at Jensen, but needing to anyway.

Jensen nodded, his eyes wide with something Jared couldn’t place, but when Jared took a deep breath, determination filled the green eyes.“Then we’d best get ready.Akil, can you talk to the men in the morning?”

Jared’s mouth hung open as Jensen began making plans.He’d been trying to figure out how to ask Jensen to go with them, but there he was already taking the lead to get them back.Jim was throwing his two cents in about provisions and Jahde said his own men would come with them; the task of defeating the Pharaoh was theirs after all.

“Akil, you need to make sure the men know.Anything that was taken from the tomb needs to come with us.He’ll continue to hunt for them.”

“Won’t that endanger the men?”Akil asked.

Jared shook his head as he held his hand out towards Jensen.Jensen looked quizzically at it, but realized what he was doing.He took the necklace back and Jared closed his fingers around Jensen’s and the charm that he now held.“No.So long as we have this, it can’t find us.”He looked into Jensen’s eyes and the other man nodded.

“I’ll keep it safe for you.”

“I know you will Green-eyed.You’ll keep us all safe.”

 

**

 

Jared ran his hand through his hair as he stood up, stretching from the uncomfortable hunch he’d been in for the last hour.He needed to sleep and his bed was calling, even with all the nervous energy he had.They were going to have hard days ahead of them and he needed to be at his best, but there was still so much to translate.He didn’t think any of it would help them.He was sure most of it would be more stories of the General and as much as that fascinated him, it wouldn’t be of use against the monster that Jared had seen in his vision.It also felt distinctly unfair to know so much about the General when… he shook his head, refusing to finish the train of thought.

“Jared?”

He looked at the door of his study to find Jensen hovering just outside of it.“Jensen?Do you need something?”He asked, trying to be a proper host.Jensen didn’t really have a home and it felt right to keep him close.Especially with everything that was happening.

Jensen nodded as he walked in.“Just having trouble sleeping.”He said softly.“I was just walking around a bit and saw the light on in here.Shouldn’t you be sleeping?”

Jared nodded and decided it was a good time for it.He would still have time in the morning while Akil was getting the men together.Luckily, his foreman was more than capable and with Jensen there as well, all Jared really needed to work on was the translation.He trusted the two men completely when it came to getting the men and gear ready.He didn’t trust himself with Jensen alone anymore though.He wasn’t sure what was happening between them and nothing that had happened that evening helped any.In fact, he’d done everything he could to avoid being alone with the explorer since they’d arrived back at the Manor.

“Too right.”He said with a smile, just avoiding eye contact as he rolled up the rubbings and placed them carefully away.He’d given a few to Jim who had promised to start them before the journey as well.He was worried about involving his friend, now that he knew what they were getting into, but he was relieved as well.Jim was not only a good friend, but a great linguist and with more years of experience with Egypt than Jared ever hoped to have.It was a boon to have the man on their travels with them, especially with the stakes as high as they were.

He left the study, walking past Jensen and suppressing a shiver as their shoulders brushed against one another.“Good night Green-eyed.”He said softly, not looking back.

He walked quickly to his room and threw himself onto the bed, staring at the ceiling for a minute, trying to get his mind where it needed to be.He couldn’t dwell on Jensen now, not when everything was dependent on him.

“Did you think I was going to let you get away that easy?”

His eyes flew to the doorway as he sat up, finding Jensen as he shut the door behind him.“I don’t know what happened to you tonight Jared, but you’ve got to stop running from me.”Jensen said, his voice as quiet as he’d ever heard it.Quiet, but intense.“I know there’s something going on Jared, something scared you tonight but if you have to keep it quiet, at least tell me.”

Jensen was right.It was why he’d been avoiding him since the last vision had come.He couldn’t say it though, didn’t know how to admit to Jensen what he knew.“Jensen… I … don’t… ”

“I’m coming with you, no matter what you say.”Jensen said, cutting off the aborted denial.“I can’t… damn it Jared.”He said, anger ringing through his voice but Jared knew it wasn’t anger at him.“I can’t let you walk into this alone.Don’t push me away when you know I’m going to be beside you anyway.”

Jared stood up then, reaching for Jensen before he knew what he was doing.He crossed the small distance between them and had his hand resting on Jensen’s arm.Jensen’s eyes searched his and he knew what he saw, the sorrow and pain, the fear of what was to come.He swallowed against the lump in his throat but his voice came out wrecked anyway.“Jensen…”

It was Jensen who cupped his face, fingers calloused but so gentle against his skin.“I’m not letting you out of my sight again Jay.”He said as he leaned closer, stopping when his lips were just a whisper away from Jared’s.“Don’t make me fight for this.Not alone.”

When his lips pressed lightly to Jared’s, there was nothing left in him that could deny it.His hand gripped Jensen’s arm tighter as he opened to him.His other hand came to rest on Jensen’s hip, pulling him closer.Jensen moaned as his tongue dipped into Jared’s mouth, his hand reaching into Jared’s hair to pull him into the right angle.It was everything Jared wanted, everything he knew that Jensen could possibly be.There was so much passion in the other man and he knew if he ever gave himself over to this there would never be a turning back.

He felt Jensen slowly walking them backwards, his lips never leaving Jared’s even as he pushed him down onto the bed, one knee sliding between his legs as the other braced outside his thigh to keep his balance as Jared moved up the mattress.

When Jensen broke the kiss, he rested his forehead against Jared’s, the back of one hand running lightly over his cheek as he looked down at him.“I’ve wanted to do that since you found the marker.”

Jared closed his eyes as Jensen shifted slightly, his knee rubbing against Jared’s crotch, making his squirm.“What took you so long?”Jared asked breathlessly.

Jensen let out a small laugh.“Wasn’t sure how you felt about me.”He said, pulling back enough to look him in the eyes.“Not until the day in the tomb.Since then…” he shrugged and Jared knew what the rest meant.There had been too much between them after that, and Jensen was determined to walk away while Jared had been determined to continue.“Can’t leave you now though.”

“Changed your mind because of the Pharaoh?”Jared asked, because he needed to know.He needed to understand why it was different now.

Jensen shook his head.“You had that vision and we could all see it wasn’t something good.The look on your face… it was like Jahde had that gun to your head all over again and I knew I couldn’t let you face something like that alone, no matter what else was going on.I might not always agree with what you’re doing Jared, but I can’t let you walk into danger like that, not alone.”

If he was going to say anything else, Jared never knew it.He cut off any other words by wrapping a hand behind Jensen’s neck and one around his lower back and pulling him close.He felt Jensen’s hard body resting against his own as Jared sought entrance into his mouth.

As Jensen deepened the kiss, Jared’s hands pulled the fabric of his shirt free of his pants, letting his hands run over his bare flesh.Jensen moaned into the touch and then Jared couldn’t get enough.It didn’t take them long to lose their clothes, not once Jared got them started.Jensen must have been waiting for him to make the move, because as soon as his shirt was off, he was all over Jared, his hands roaming over each piece of newly revealed flesh.Where Jared’s touch was almost desperate, Jensen’s was calming as if their coupling was as inevitable as the dawn.And when Jensen pushed inside of him, Jared believed it.

He didn’t know how else to explain what he felt, but as Jensen rocked into him, his body gleaming with sweat, the General’s necklace the only thing between them, he knew this was how it was meant to be for them.It was what the visions had wanted all along and he reveled in the feeling.

He closed his eyes, wrapping his hand in the necklace as he pulled Jensen in for another kiss.“God Green-eyed.”He whispered against his lips.“I’d follow you anywhere.”

He felt the body above him stiffen, felt his release and it sent Jared over as well, his body painting them both as Jensen crushed their lips together.When Jensen pulled back, he closed his eyes, letting his head rest beside Jared, his lips touching the tip of his ears.He pulled Jared close, their gaze colliding as he draping his arm over Jensen’s hip.“I know.”Jensen said, his eyes filled with so much sorrow that Jared knew he understood.Somewhere, even if he didn’t know why, Jensen understood why they were together.And he knew their time was almost done.

 

**

 

When Jared woke the next morning, he found himself alone and the other side of the bed already cold. He felt a moment of panic, but pushed it aside. He might not have known Jensen all that long, but he knew Jensen. What had happened between them wasn’t enough to send him running. Whatever had Jensen out of bed, it wasn’t panic or fear. So instead of torturing himself with all the reasons why Jensen might have left him alone in bed, Jared got up and cleaned himself up. When he was dressed, he went to the kitchens and got something to eat, then headed back to his study.  
  
He was almost finished with the translation when he heard something at the door. He looked up to find Jim in the doorway with Jensen just behind him. “I told you he’d be working away at it in here.” He said with a fond smile.   
  
Jared returned it, not completely sure of his standing with Jensen, but strong with the knowledge that Jensen was at his side no matter what. “Good morning.” He said as Jim walked over to the desk and looked over the piece he was working on.   
  
“You stay up all night boy?” Jim asked as he looked at the work he’d done.  
  
“Most of it.” He answered, daring a glance up at Jensen while Jim stared at the scroll in front of him.   
  
Jensen gave him a wink before clearing his throat. Jim looked up and Jensen addressed them both. “I have to return to the city with Akil. We should be ready to leave by mid afternoon.”  
  
“You were able to get the men back together so quickly?” Jared asked.  
  
“Akil had given them orders to be prepared to leave at his word so they are ready. It’s just a matter of getting the supplies. Akil thought he would have it ready late this morning. You should make sure your things are packed Jared. When I return, it will be with our men, ready for the next step of this adventure of yours.”  
  
Jared smiled a mile wide and Jensen’s returned the warmth as he bowed slightly. “I will be back soon.”  
  
He was out the door before Jared could think of anything else to say, and he was glad of it. Jared had no idea what to say to Jensen after last night. More than the fact that they’d become lovers, there was so much he knew and didn’t know how to say to Jensen. He didn’t know if they other man would believe him. As much as Jensen was comfortable with Jared’s visions, what he now knew was something else entirely.  
  
“Well, it looks like you’re stuck with me for a bit then.”  
  
Jim broke the silence, and though he had a raised brow at the other man, he didn’t ask. Jim was smarter than any person he’d ever met, but it was in life itself that he excelled the most. Jim was a linguist by trade and the sort of person that just understood other people. He got the way the world worked, even if he was buried in half-dead languages. Jared had always envied him that.   
  
Jared smiled at his mentor. “It does look like it. Thank you Jim. I don’t know if you’ll thank me for involving you at the end of this-”  
  
“None of that Jared. What you’ve shown me so far has me intrigued.” He looked away from the desk and up at Jared. “And I don’t just mean the scrolls. I’ve never seen something hit you like it did last night.”  
  
Jared nodded. “Nothing has. What’s happening now, it’s unlike anything I’ve ever experiences Jim. It’s …” he searched for a way to describe it. “It’s personal.”  
  
“And that doesn’t worry you?”  
  
Jared shrugged. “You sound like Jensen.”  
  
“The Green-eyed is known for his wisdom.”   
  
Jared looked up at his friend and saw the smirk there. He let out a short laugh.  
  
“Seriously though Jared, do you understand what you’re getting involved with? I know Jahde and I know his people. They’ve been preparing for this battle since these scrolls were written. Do you really think you should throw yourself into this?”  
  
“I can’t stop now Jim. I don’t know that I could have stopped after I saw the first scroll.” He said honestly. Even if he was inclined to stay behind on this adventure, which he wasn’t, he couldn’t leave Jensen now. The night before had changed everything, in so many ways. “And it’s all a rather moot point anyway. This creature is going to come whether I go or not. I set him free. I can’t walk away knowing that. I have to do what I can to set that creature to rest.”  
  
“Do you really believe that Jared? I’ve never seen you buy into the local superstitions.”  
  
“If you could see what I saw, you’d understand.” Jared said with a shake of his head.   
  
Jim crossed his arms over his chest. “Then tell me what you saw Jared.”  
  
He took a deep breath. “I can’t.”  
  
“You gonna tell the Green-eyed?” Jared just shook his head. “Then you’re asking us all to go into this blind.”  
  
“Nothing I could tell you would make a difference, not to you.”  
  
“But him?”  
  
“He’d still go.”  
  
“Not what I’m asking.”  
  
Jared bit his lower lip as he shook his head. “Come on. Let’s see what else we can get through before they arrive.” Jim bent his head over the desk to look at the remaining translations. Jared was afraid the conversation was far from over, but he pushed the thought aside. Jim would ambush him when he thought he could get more out of him. He just had to keep hold of what he knew was right. He couldn’t tell anyone what he’d seen before he talked to Jensen about it, but he couldn’t find a way to tell Jensen either. He wasn’t sure he wanted to. There was no taking the knowledge back and it would change everything.   
  


**  
  


Four hours later, Jared found himself back on the road. Akil and Jensen had managed to get everything they needed and Akil assured him that Jahde was going to meet them at the pyramid with his men. They were already guarding it, but he was bringing the rest of them so that they would be able to start as soon as they met at the General’s tomb.   
  
He didn’t get much of a chance to talk to Jensen as they rode. Akil rode with the men, staying towards the center and talking to them. Jim rode with Jared at the front of the column leading the way, while Jensen was at the back. It was an uneasy feeling, having his lover at the back where he expected trouble most, but he realized he’d never been easy with Jensen being anywhere other than at his side.   
  
He tried to push thoughts of Jensen aside to focus on the journey and what lay ahead of them, but it was hard when he hadn’t had a chance to talk to Jensen since they’d fallen in bed together the night before. He didn’t doubt the relationship that had developed between them but he would have liked to have been able to talk to him.   
  
He wasn’t entirely sure about Jensen’s change of heart when it came to the tomb, and while part of him was happy to think it was because Jensen just wanted to keep him safe, he hoped there was more to it. Jensen seemed to enjoy being with him and the men. He knew his way around a dig and had proven it with his easy manner around the site and the way he’d been able to settle into the schedule they worked up. If Jensen really loved what they were doing, the way Jared did, then there was always the hope that they’d have more than just this one adventure. They’d talked about it in teasing moments, or when the other needed to be reassured, but Jared really didn’t know what would happen when all this was over. Would Jensen follow him from place to place, or would he take off on his own?  
  
He pushed the thought to the back of his head and sighed as he heard Akil behind him, calling for a stop. It wasn’t dark yet, but he knew it would be soon and they needed to get camp set. They’d made good time, considering how late they’d started in the day and Jared was happy about that. They didn’t have the same men as when they’d started out, but Akil still stood behind them. Most of those that they’d started with were still with them, but beside the three missing men, some had refused to head back out with them. The new men more than made up for the numbers. Some were good for the dig, but he’d brought rougher men as well, soldiers who were there to protect them against anything they might come against. Jared didn’t think there was anything that would protect them against what he’d seen, but he felt better for their presence anyway.   
  
He was talking with Akil as his own tent was set up and as soon as it was, he ducked inside. He ignored everything but the desk that had been set up for him, unrolling the remaining translations and throwing himself into them. He didn’t think they’d help them along the way, but he couldn’t risk no knowing.   
  
The stories were fascinating though and Jared knew that he would have been working this feverishly even if they weren’t going into a dangerous situation. Most of the translations just continued on with the story of the General who had given them hope, who had treated them well, and who had cared for them. Others told specific stories though of how the General had stayed an overseer’s hand, or had made them let the sick rest, instead of working them to their death. Others still spoke of his prowess on the battlefield, of his keen mind and the way he’d read a battle and move his men to a victory even against the odds. They spoke of love and dedication and a man filled with eternal goodness, a man later filled with pain who hid himself behind devotion to a man who didn’t appreciate it. They spoke of hate and love and all consuming jealousy.   
  
Jared read and translated and never let his mind dwell on the other things he knew, instead letting his eyes close to remember the press of Jensen against his lips and the warmth of his body. He needed that distraction because there was so much in the words that weren’t written, so much implied about the General and the life he’d led.   
  
“You’re a child really.”  
  
He looked up from the translation to see Jensen inside the tent, a tray of food in his hands.   
  
“I knew you weren’t going to come out but I had hoped hunger would at least make you stop long enough to eat.”  
  
He realized how dark it was outside his tent and sighed. “I didn’t realize how long I’d been at it.” He said with a small smile. “Sorry about that.”  
  
“Don’t apologize. Just eat something.” Jensen said, setting the tray by the bed.   
  
It was the only place to sit in the tent he realized then. Two cots had been brought in and it left no place for a seat, besides at the table that he was sitting at. He realized Jensen was going to make him stop, at least that long, but he couldn’t regret it really. He’d been wanting to talk to Jensen all day and it was the first moment alone they’d had.  
He got up and stretched his back and neck before sitting on one of the cots. “You aren’t eating?” He asked when he realized there was enough for one.  
  
Jensen shook his head, an amused smile on his face. “I sat with Akil and the men. I wanted to get a feel for the additional men and it seemed the best time for it.”  
  
“Ah. Thank you. For that. For this.” He said, pointing to the tray.   
  
“Someone has to make sure you don’t starve while you’re working.”  
  
Jared looked up and saw nothing but affection in Jensen’s eyes. He wanted to reach out and touch the other man, wanted to kiss him senseless and push him back across the cot, but then Jensen was looking down. “You better eat before it gets cold.”  
  
He did as he was told. The first bite made him realize just how hungry he was and after that he devoured the healthy servings Jensen had brought him. Jensen didn’t meet his eyes after that, but sat quietly, talking about the new men and the progress throughout the day. He talked about how long it would take to get back to the pyramid of the General, and then about how long it would take them to reach their final destination. None of it seemed to faze him, the complete change of direction that he’d taken when he’d agreed to follow Jared’s lead again, but Jared didn’t ask about it. He didn’t want to push his luck.  
  
When he was finished, Jensen took the tray from him and disappeared out of the tent with it. He wasn’t sure what to make of it when Jensen came right back though, dropping the flap of his tent. He knew what he wanted it to mean when Jensen chose to close the flap between them and the rest of the camp, but he didn’t want to assume anything.  
  
He didn’t have time to worry though because then Jensen was pressing their lips together and pushing until his fingers were caressing bare flesh. “I’ve been dying to do that all day long.” Jensen breathed into his mouth.  
  
“Could have just asked.” Jared laughed.  
  
Jensen’s smile was breathtaking as he looked down at Jared. “Had to wait to get you alone.”  
  
Jared understood then and he couldn’t help but be grateful for Jensen’s discretion. It was one thing for them to be doing this, but to make it too obvious would certainly cause trouble with the men. “Alone now.” He groaned as Jensen’s hand began to tug at the button of his pants.  
  
Jensen bit lightly at his lower lip. “Yeah, just see if you can keep quiet because otherwise, all that waiting was for nothing.”  
  
Jared didn’t answer. He bit his lip instead to keep from moaning as Jensen moved against him. And when Jensen moved up his body to swallow his sounds, he let it all go, forgetting about mummies and visions and generals beloved and betrayed. 

 

**

 

Things seemed to move faster once they had the first day under their belts. The new men understood the routine and they assimilated into the group easily under Akil’s watchful eye. He and Jensen moved among the men at what seemed a random dance, but they were always working their way to the back and the middle of the column. Jared wondered how they coordinated it with such ease, but he had faith in both men. He knew that his lover was just as skilled in this area as his friend.   
  
Jared found himself sleeping better than he had before. When Jensen closed the flap to the tent it was just the two of them and all thoughts of the translations left his head. Afterwards, when he was too tired and sated to do anything else, he’d fall asleep beside Jensen, one hand locked around the necklace that belonged there.  
  
It wasn’t always peaceful though. The second night Jensen woke with nightmares, his eyes dark and hungry as he shot up from his sleep. Jared calmed him but he noticed the way Jensen’s headaches seemed to grow worse and the nightmares seemed to plague him in the waking hours. He contented himself with giving Jensen what relief he could, and knowing that whatever happened, Jensen would be free of it all soon.   
  
They were four days out of Cairo when Jensen made his way to the front of the column. “Jared, something’s coming.” He pointed to the horizon and Jared could just make something out.   
  
“What is it?” He asked, trying not to think about what they were running towards.  
  
“It’s a single runner. I’ll go find out what he wants.”  
  
Jared grabbed Jensen’s arm before he could move his mount forward. “Jensen, be careful.”  
  
He gave Jared a warm smile. “Haven’t you heard Jared? The Green-eyed is always careful.”  
  
He was off then, leaving Jared cursing at his reckless nature. “Damn fool is going to get himself killed,” he muttered before calling the rest of the men to a halt. Akil came to the front then, but didn’t ask Jared for information. Jared wondered if somehow Jensen had let Akil know what he was doing before he’d talked to Jared but he didn’t ask.   
  
They watched in silence as Jensen met with the lone rider. Jared was worried; tension seeped into his muscles even though he knew Jensen could take care of himself. Part of him wanted to say it was just because they’d become lovers, but Jared knew he’d worried about him before that happened. He wondered how much of that had to do with the dig and for the first time, he was really concerned about what brought Jensen to them in the first place. Was Jensen as unaware of the events that were unfolding as he seemed? Did he really just drift from place to place like he claimed, or was there more of a purpose to it than he’d let on?  
  
He dropped that line of thought as the rider shot off alone, leaving Jensen to ride back to them in safety.  
  
The men behind them were restless, no one comfortable with this lone figure after they’d been attacked by raiders. Jensen came straight to Jared and he was grateful for that at least. “Jahde’s men. They’re close by and wanted to see if they could join camps.”  
  
“You gave them the okay?” Jared asked.  
  
Jensen nodded. “I figure the more we get to know each other before everything goes crazy, the better.”  
  
“I agree.” Jared said, as if that was in doubt. It made sense on more than one level. He looked over at Akil. “Tell the men to break for lunch here and start spreading the word about our new arrivals.” He looked back at Jensen. “Any word on when they’ll be joining us?”  
  
“Before nightfall.”

 

**  
  
  
Jahde was at the head of the small group that joined them an hour or so before they needed to set up camp. He didn’t feel hostile anymore, but Jared couldn’t relax around him; it wasn’t easy to forget the gun to his head. Jensen didn’t relax either and Jared felt a rush of affection towards him.   
  
“I thought you would be waiting at the pyramid?” Jared asked as the other men said their hellos.   
  
“I think it would be best if we arrived at the tomb together.”  
  
He eyed the men around them nervously and Jared realized there was more to this than he was comfortable saying in front of the others. He shifted to look at Jensen who nodded slightly, as if he could read his thoughts. “We’ll stop for camp in about an hour. Perhaps you’d join us at our fires?” He asked.  
  
Jahde seemed to relax a little and nodded. “My men are ahead and have already started to prepare tents. It is the only defensible position in this area. Joining our camps would make me feel more at ease.” He smiled as he said it, but Jared didn’t think he was happy about any of it. Whatever was happening, Jahde was worried.  
  
“We’re honored to accept.” Jensen said in Jared’s place.   
  
He could see Jahde’s questioning look between himself and Jensen, as he tried to work out who had the real control of their party and Jared contented himself with a smile. “Jensen, pass word back to the men.”  
  
He nodded slightly before turning to the men. Akil fell behind with him and left Jared with Jim and Jahde.  
  
“I have never seen the Green-eyed take orders from another before.”  
  
“Take orders? I don’t think he really does. It’s more that Jensen does what he needs to, and I just happen to voice it before he can.” He said with a fond voice. “He knows his way around a dig as well as I. He and Akil keep the men moving and I get to keep my head in the artifacts. It works well.”  
  
Jahde nodded and Jim gave him an odd smile. Jim had a large array of them that could do anything from communicate joy and pride to call you a damn fool of a jackass without more than a twitch of his lips. He wasn’t sure what this one was, falling somewhere between damn fool and pride, but beneath it all was the affection he’d come to know from the older, gruffer man.   
  
“We’d best be on our way Jared, if we’re going to settle in tonight before the men get too restless.”  
  
He nodded and looked back to the column, seeing Akil in the middle with Jensen at the end. He waved back to them both and then they were moving again, towards a meeting with Jahde that he was sure he wouldn’t enjoy.

 

**

  
  
They met with the other contingent of men and everything went smoothly. The men might have felt some resentment towards each other, but they were being paid well to do what they were told and they kept their feelings to themselves. There seemed to be two separate camps though, even if they were all camping together.   
  
Jahde eased tension a little by sitting in the middle of Jared’s men, taking a meal with them. It wasn’t enough to settle it all, but it helped. Jensen walked among the men, Jared’s and Jahde’s and his presence eased the way as well. He heard men laughing when Jensen was with them, heard groups joining in around him and everyone seemed to relax a little more with each laugh. Jared couldn’t help the way his lips twitched up each time he heard Jensen’s laugh or the way his eyes searched the other man out.   
  
Jim and Jahde spoke quietly as they ate; Jahde about the terrain they’d cross in the morning and Jim about the translations they’d been working on. Jahde listened to the stories that Jim related and added bits and pieces of history that his people knew. Jared listened as intently as he could, but found himself distracted each time he found Jensen.  
  
The fires were starting to burn low when Jim sighed. “Suppose it’s time for that talk now Jahde.” He said softly.  
  
Jared nodded as he stood. He caught Jensen’s eye and the other man moved to Akil’s side, speaking softly to him before joining them as they entered Jared’s tent. He took a seat on the cot, leaving Jim and Jahde to take the two seats in the tent. Jensen came in a moment later and took a seat on his own cot which sat perpendicular to Jared’s. He was just grateful they hadn’t moved them together yet. There was enough surprise in Jahde’s eyes as it was.   
  
“So what happened that you changed your plans Jahde?” Jim asked.  
  
Jahde took a deep breath, running his hand over his beard as he did so. “A runner came to us yesterday. He did not speak of what was happening, but he said that we should not return to the tomb without you.”  
  
“What happened?” Jared asked.  
  
Jahde shook his head, unable to speak for a moment but Jensen filled the silence. “It was already there.”  
  
Jahde looked up and nodded. “We knew what we were up against; I just didn’t expect it to be at the tomb. I believe that Jared’s idea was for the best, to meet the Pharaoh at his pyramid and call him to us, but he either divined our plan or he simply wanted to steal his way into the General’s tomb on his own.”  
  
“Why would he want to be there?”  
  
Jahde shook his head. “I don’t know. I had hoped you would be able to tell us.”  
  
“I have no idea.” Jared said. He looked over at Jensen and shook his head. “The Pharaoh wanted the General.” He said, getting up to pace across the small area in the tent. “The only way to stop him now that he’s awakened is a confrontation with the General.” Jared stopped. “He wants the body. He thinks the General’s soul is trapped in that body and he’s waiting for us to release him.”  
  
“You don’t think his spirit is there though?” Jim asked.  
  
Jared kept his eyes carefully focused on Jim’s. “No, I don’t.”  
  
“Then where the hell is it? Because if he’s got to confront the Pharaoh, we need to know.”  
  
“The artifacts that were taken. It has to be in one of them.” Jared said. He knew it was a lie, but he couldn’t give up what he knew just yet. “And I suggest we work on those translations again. The ones in the room with the General’s mummy are probably the most relevant.”  
  
Jim nodded. “I think it’s time for me to retire to my tent then. You have something in here I can work on?”  
  
Jared looked through the tubes that were always brought to him and handed two to Jim. He placed another two on his desk. “These were next in line for translation anyway.” He said with a small grin. At least Jim would enjoy the work, even if Jared was lying to him.   
  
He took his leave and Jared was left with Jahde who watched him like a dangerous viper. “There are things about you I don’t understand, American.” He said softly. “I will follow your lead tonight, but in the morning, I will expect more answers.”  
  
He didn’t give Jared time to respond before he was leaving the tent.   
  
Jared sighed and fell back onto his cot. He’d forgotten Jensen was there until fingers dug into his neck and he moaned slightly. “Jensen.”  
  
“We all know you’re hiding something Jared. I don’t think Jahde is going to take no for an answer come morning, so you’d better come to terms with it now.”  
  
“What if… what if I do know something, but I can’t tell anyone? What if I’m keeping my secrets to protect someone?”  
  
Jensen pulled him around until they were facing one another. “Jared, no one doubts your desire to do what must be done. You can’t hide behind that though. What we face tomorrow, it’s a nightmare the likes of which none of us have seen. I’ve been listening to Jahde’s men and they’ve handed down the legend of this beast. He’s immortal with strength that you can’t understand. We don’t deserve to walk into this blind.”  
  
“What I might know won’t help that any.”  
  
“Will it hurt us?”  
  
He took a deep breath. “One of us, it will.”  
  
Jensen watched him for a long moment then shook his head. “You won’t speak and I can’t make you. I’ll back you in the morning Jared, but I think you’re making a mistake. Whatever it is you think you’re protecting, you’re hurting us all.”  
  
Jensen pulled away from Jared and he grabbed for his wrist. “Jensen, please. Don’t go.”  
  
He looked at Jared’s hand on his wrist and then back up. “You have translations to do Jared and I want to spend more time with the men tonight. I’ll be back.” He said, pressing forward and laying a soft kiss against Jared’s lips. “I don’t agree with your secrets Jared, but the heavens know you aren’t the only man with them.”  
  
He left before Jared could say another word. When he came back that night, it was long past dusk and he fell under his blankets without a word. Jared watched, as fascinated with his movements as he had ever been. He had to work on the translations though. He had his secrets, but he still had hope that what he believed had to happen was wrong, so he continued to search for new answers until dusk spread her light across the sands.  
  


**

 

Jared worked through most of the night. As much as he wanted to spend more of the time with Jensen, he still had some hope that what he learned might counter what the visions has shown him had to happen. When his eyes began drifting to Jensen too often, he decided it was time to take to bed himself.   
  
He slid his cot beside Jensen’s and slipped into it. Curling up beside his lover, he listened to him breathing for a while before he leaned in and brushed his lips lightly over Jensen’s. Jensen moaned softly and it was more than Jared could take. He didn’t know what the next day would bring, but he knew that this would be the last night they’d have together.   
  
He brought his hand up to the back of Jensen’s neck and kissed him again, his tongue parting the way into Jensen’s mouth. He felt Jensen opening up to him, felt his hand grip at his hip and pull him closer.   
  
He rolled them until he was on top of Jensen and reveled in the feel of the other man underneath him. He felt Jensen’s hands rising up his back, fingernails dragging lightly across his skin. He needed more than that though so he sat up, pulling Jensen up with him. He removed his lover’s shirt and pants as quickly as he could then got rid of his own pants. Jensen pushed him down on the cot and followed him, their bodies pressed close as he attacked Jared’s neck and chest with his lips. Jared bit into the flesh of his hand to keep from calling out as Jensen worked his way lower. Jared felt like his body would explode from the intensity of the desire that coursed through him as Jensen licked and sucked at him, working him into an incoherent mess.   
  
Jensen pressed inside him and swallowed his moans as he moved in and out of his body. It was too much, knowing that this was their last night, knowing that the next day would change everything between them. He didn’t feel the tears leaking down his face, not until Jensen began kissing them away, but then orgasm swept through them both and with that release, sleep came to Jensen quickly after. As much as Jared wanted to talk to Jensen, he let his lover rest. There were no words he could say anyway. Instead, he lay beside him, enjoying the weight of him pressed beside him, until the gentle sound of his breathing lulled Jared to sleep as well.   
  
  
**

 

Jared squinted as his eyes adjusted to the brightness outside the tent. The men were already clearing the other tents away before he managed to stumble out of his cot and into some semblance of decency. He looked around until he found Jensen working with some of Jahde’s men. They had set aside a pack animal during this trip for anyone that wanted to return artifacts that had been taken from the temple and its packs were full. They’d left them to the side where no one would be watching, but on the way to the latrine area that was used. With no one to watch them and an easy way to explain why they were going that way, they had given the men the anonymity they needed to return the stolen items without losing their reputation.   
  
He wondered, considering the impressive amount of items stolen, if any of the men were as honest as Akil believed. He shrugged the thought off almost as soon as he thought it though, seeing the way the necklace hung from Jensen’s neck as he worked.   
  
“We have more to discuss.”  
  
Jared sighed as he looked back at Jahde. “What would you like to know?”  
  
“You know more about the General than you were speaking last night.”  
  
Jared had spent a little time the night before thinking up his next words. He wouldn’t tell Jahde the truth of what he’d seen, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t tell him part of it. He just hoped it was enough of the truth that he wouldn’t notice the omission.  
  
“The necklace that Jensen wears around his neck.” Jared said softly. “I believe that is the source of the Pharaoh’s curse. He planted that in the tomb to enslave the General’s soul.”  
  
“The Green-eyed does not know what he carries.”  
  
“No, and I would prefer to keep it that way. He doesn’t need to know.”  
  
“The Pharaoh will come for him because of it.”  
  
“I know, but I think Jensen will be in the heart of the fight no matter what we do. If there is anyone that can protect the General today, it is Jensen.”  
  
Jahde didn’t look happy about his answer, but he seemed to understand it. Jared breathed out a sigh of relief when the other man walked away. He smiled weakly when Jensen looked up at him, but turned away before the other man could take it as an invitation. As much as he’d like to spend time with Jensen, they had to see this through and the more he thought about it, the more he had the urge to grab Jensen and just run.   
  
Instead he went in search of Akil. They were finishing up the last of the tents since Jared had left his and he found Akil talking softly with Jahde at the edge of camp. He was about to head towards them but Jim caught his attention and he went over to the makeshift table the other man was working off of to help him finish one last translation.  
  
He didn’t realize how much time had passed as they discussed the translation until there was a shadow over the rubbing. He looked up to see Jensen, Akil, and Jahde staring over them.   
  
“Time to move on then?” Jim asked.  
  
To his credit there was no hesitation in his voice. Jared smiled at Jim, hoping that the other man understood his gratitude. If they all got out of it alive, he’d make sure to tell him. He was sure he’d need the other man’s support then anyway.   
  
“It’s time.” Jahde said with a finality that made Jared glare. As much as he understood the man’s motives and his feelings about the day, he resented him as much for the irrevocability of his words as he did the gun to his head.   
  
Akil helped Jim get the table packed away and Jahde went back to his men to see that they were ready. It was a useless gesture since they all knew they were ready, but he seemed to dislike Jared’s company as much as Jared did his. Jared was left to walk to the front of the camp with Jensen and the silence felt thick enough to suffocate on. He couldn’t say much to the other man, none of the things he really wanted to. He could see the question in Jensen’s eyes, but he didn’t ask and Jared didn’t say anything.  
  
It wasn’t until they reached their mounts that he leaned over and grabbed for Jensen’s arm, stopping him. Jensen looked up in surprise and he realized they hadn’t spoken since he’d woken. “Stay close Jensen. Today, please, stay close to me.”  
  
Jensen eyed him for a minute before nodding. “I was going to anyway, Jared. Not a chance in hell I’m letting you out of my sights when we go up against something like this.”  
  
He wanted to pull Jensen close but he didn’t. There was no way to tell him that he didn’t want Jensen’s protection. There was no way, without explaining it all, to tell him that it was the Green-Eyed that would need protection today.  
  
  
**  
  
  
There was nothing to hinder them as they rode into the valley; nothing came out of the sand or tried to keep them from their journey. The men seemed unsettled and Jared understood. The Pharaoh wanted them there, he wanted the General’s soul and it was with them now. All he had to claim in that empty tomb was decayed flesh and musty wrappings. It was the soul that would follow him into the afterlife and it was the one part of the General that he had never owned.   
  
Jared could understand the obsession that drove the Pharaoh to do what he’d done. He could understand the need to make sure that the General remained his. What he couldn’t understand though was how the Pharaoh could have done any of it without a single thought of love.   
  
The visions had shown him that it was love and devotion that had caused the General to rise from his lowly stature to try to prove his worth. If the Pharaoh had shown even the slightest affection, he would have won the General’s soul without a fight, without murders and bloodshed. Those thoughts consumed him as he rode at the back of the column.   
  
Jahde’s men rode at the front, the first wave that would protect them from the worst of what was to come. Jared and Jim rode in the back with Jensen and Jahde. He doubted Jahde would stay at the back when the fighting started but it wouldn’t take long for the fighting to center around Jensen so he figured Jahde would be close to them most of the time either way. It was comforting, even if they did dislike one another. He seemed to have a healthy respect for the Green-eyed and Jared knew that Jahde would try to see them all through it no matter what his personal feelings were.   
  
  
When it happened, it was like a shadow passing over them from above. The horses and camels suddenly reared up, trying to toss their riders. Sand shifted around their feet as if snakes rode just underneath the surface, waiting to attack anything sitting still.   
  
Jahde’s men were well trained though and they pushed their beasts forward and the other men followed. They rode hard towards the entrance of the tomb, but they stopped well short of it. As much as Jahde’s men had talked about the Pharaoh and what sort of creature he would be when he rose from his tomb, none of them prepared for what actually came from the depths of the pyramid.  
  
Their movements were disjointed and at first it was hard for Jared to understand what he was seeing, but as they got closer and his mind finally caught up with his eyes, he knew what it was. Shabti, the men and women that have dedicated their lives for their General, that had put a little of their own souls into the miniature reenactments of what they would do for him in the afterlife, were lining up in front of the tomb.   
  
He didn’t have time to think as Jahde was suddenly letting loose a battle cry and springing from the back of the company. His yell was enough to send the men forward and all Jared could do was grab onto his reigns and pull the rifle from its holster.  
  
Jared watched as a man in front of him was pulled from his saddle. He pulled the trigger and the shabti disintegrated into sand as the other man scrambled back onto his horse. The rode past the darkened sand, but the shabti wasn’t dead. It was already beginning to reform. Jared looked around and saw the same thing happening over and over again. The shabti weren’t smart soldiers, but they were fierce and no matter how you hit them, they simply folded into sand and reappeared in full form again where they fell.  
  
Another shabti tried to grab Jared, but Jensen was there at his side then, keeping Jared in his saddle while shooting the creature with the handgun in his other hand.   
  
Jensen stayed close to Jared as they continued to fight their way towards the entrance. Jared watched as men fell around them, unable to stop it, knowing that the only way to end it all was to get to the tomb. Even as he rode, as they weaved in and out of the shabti, Jared began to realize that the shabti were different as they attacked the Green-eyed. They were muttering, sounds that seemed almost a projection of thought than actually words, but it was directed at Jensen and Jensen alone. The shabti around Jensen spoke even as they attacked, never stopping even when Jensen shot them down. It didn’t take long for Jared to understand the words they spoke and his heart thudded dully each time his vision was proven true.  
  
Jared realized that if they didn’t get out of there soon, there would be no way to end it. If they died on the sands… if Jensen died… “Jensen!” Jared shouted over the clamor. They’d been working towards the entrance, but in a weaving pattern that had taken them to helping others as often as it got them closer to their goal. They couldn’t do that any longer. “We have to get inside to the tomb!”  
  
Jensen didn’t ask, but started hacking a straight his way through, Jim and Jahde falling in behind them as they passed. Jahde’s men filed around them, instinctively moving to keep the shabti at bay.  
  
They rode hard to the entrance and threw themselves off their beasts as they ran to the main passage way. It was eerily quiet as soon as they stood, looking out from the first room into the hallway that lead to the tomb. Jared wasn’t sure what to expect there, but it seemed the shabti were all outside.   
  
“I’m beginning to think they wanted to make sure we made it in alone.” Jensen said softly. Even the clipped volume echoed against the walls though and they all heard him. Jared could tell from his face that he’d intended them to.  
  
Jared felt a stunned silence fall over them as they looked down the hallway. He knew they needed to move forward, that Jahde’s men were dieing for them as they stood there, but something help him there. He tried to find words to say to get them moving but before he could he felt himself being pushed up against the wall, the breath knocked out of him as Jim pressed him hard into the stone. “What the hell are you playing at boy?!”   
  
Jared’s eyes widened in surprise. Jim was furious and he could see Jahde behind them though, could see the same anger and for a moment he wondered if he was any safer with them than he had been out front.  
  
“Imey er mesha?” Jim’s fists were still tangled in the front of Jared’s shirt as he spoke the words. Translating the words in his head automatically, he realized why the other man was upset. The secret that he’d been keeping from them all had been spoken from the mouth of every shabti that had come close to Jensen. Imey er mesha. General.  
  
He couldn’t answer though. He couldn’t validate the words the shabti had spoken to Jensen anymore than he could when they begged “enredi wi.” Enredi wi. Forgive me. He was afraid to look at Jensen, afraid that he’d understood the words as well. When he forced himself to look away from Jim though, Jensen was facing away from them all.   
  
“A’nen iretey wadj.” Jim continued. “Come back, Green-Eyed.” He dropped his hands from Jared but the disgust was plain on his face. The shabti were under the Pharaoh’s control, but they still recognized their General after all their years of waiting. They recognized their beloved Green-Eyed and begged his forgiveness for what they’d done.  
  
When Jensen looked over at Jared, his eyes were carefully blank. There was no hesitation in his voice though as he slung a rifle over his shoulder and pulled out two hand guns. “Alright Jared, I got you in. Now what do we do?”  
  
He didn’t know whether to weep at the lack of warmth in Jensen’s voice or be thankful that it wasn’t outright hateful, but he pushed it aside as much as he could. Jensen had been right about being allowed into the tomb alone. They still had an enemy to face and they had no idea what he would throw at them.   
  
“We need to get to the main room. The Pharaoh will want to be near the General’s body when he tries to get the necklace back.”  
  
“So he still needs the necklace. Even though the soul is … it doesn’t… even though the General’s soul isn’t inside it.” Jensen asked, stumbling over the words none of them wanted to say.  
  
Even though the General’s soul was Jensen’s.  
  
“The Pharaoh used the necklace to seal the General and himself to this fate. He needs it to complete the ritual.”  
  
“So why don’t we just destroy the damn thing?’ Jim asked.  
  
“In destroying it, we destroy the General’s link to immortality. In essence, you push his soul back into the former body and it dies there.”  
  
“So you destroy it, you kill me?” It was more of a statement than a question and Jared could only nod dumbly at the cold look Jensen was giving him. “What happens if he gets the necklace?”  
  
“If he can complete the ritual he’ll control the General’s soul.”  
  
“We can’t destroy it and we can’t let him get it. So what was the plan to stop him?” Jensen asked.  
  
“Look, the visions said there was a way.”  
  
Jensen’s voice turned stone. “I’m getting really tired of your visions about now, Jared.”  
  
Jared took a deep breath before continuing. “The point of the tomb was to let the Gods judge the General’s heart so that he would be allowed to live a different life. They wanted him to be able to have a full life and to be able to have an afterlife and stay there eternally. I think, if we let that happen, then the General will be safe and without the General’s soul to bind him here, the Pharaoh will have nothing to ground him.”  
  
“Great, so how exactly do I let my soul be judged by ancient Egyptian gods?”  
  
They were all looking at him and Jared didn’t have an answer they would like. Knowing that he was talking about his lover, knowing with all the translations that he’d done there was still no other way, he took a deep breath and answered.   
  
“We cut out your heart and place it on their scale.”  
  

**

There was silence for a moment before Jim and Jahde both started swearing.  It might have been an interesting comparison as Jim spouted off about Jared and his lack of morality and how he’d have never come if he’d known what a hair brain he was, as opposed to Jahde who cursed about the morale of his men when they found out the Green-eyed had to give his life to kill something that should never have been allowed to awaken.  
  
Jensen himself was silent and Jared wished he had time to figure out what that silence meant.  They weren’t given anymore time though.  Jensen was the first to hear the whisperings, his eyes opening wide as he looked up at Jared.  Jared caught it next and then the four of them were running through the tomb to get to the main room.    
  
“What are they saying?”  Jim asked as they stopped to close one of the large doors behind them.  It wouldn’t stop the shabti long as they began to pull themselves out of the floor and make their way towards their victims, but it was a small delay and worth the effort.    
  
“Enredi wi I Imey er mesha.” Jared said, realizing that neither Jim nor Jahde had been able to make out the words.  “Forgive me, my General.”  
  
“Well, isn’t that swell.”  Jim said with a snarl.  He looked at Jensen and shook his head.  “Don’t know about you, but I sure as hell ain’t givin’ them my blessing for cutting me to pieces.”  
  
Jensen smiled slightly at that, but he didn’t include Jared in the look.  Jared didn’t blame him.  Jared kept hoping something could get them out of this nightmare but he knew nothing would.  They had set the Pharaoh free and he was going to lose the only man that he’d ever really felt understood him.  The others could remain mad at him if they wanted, but there was nothing they could do that would compare to the knowledge that he was going to lose Jensen.  
  
The doors shuddered behind them and Jared knew it was a losing battle.  They continued to push against it though to hold it off as long as they could.  Jared tried to think of anything that would stop them but nothing came.  There was nothing in the translations that spoke of shabti coming to life or how to defeat them.    
  
He wanted to walk away from it all, to press himself against Jensen and forget the world, but there was no way to take back the secrets he’d kept or to stop what they needed to do.  The Pharaoh had only killed a few men, but with an army of shabti at his disposal he wouldn’t stay trapped in the tomb for long.    
  
He pushed his back against the door and took a deep breath as he looked at Jensen standing beside him; arms wide as he pressed against the door, eyes open and staring into Jared’s.  He didn’t understand the look, but he knew whatever happened he wanted it to be his last view of the world.  He didn’t realize he’d moved until he felt his fingers wrap around the cold medallion that hung around Jensen’s neck.    
  
He felt the necklace warm to his touch and watched as Jensen’s eyes clouded over as if he was no longer there.  Jared knew what it was as soon as he felt it, even if the vision worked through him and didn’t include him this time.  He watched Jensen’s arms fall slack at his sides and the door began to give way.  
  
“Green-eyed!”  Jahde yelled.  
  
“It’s a vision.”  Jared answered back, trying to press harder against the door to keep the shabti on the other side.  
  
They felt something hit the door and Jared knew it was over.  All four were thrown back and Jared reached for Jensen, as he stumbled to keep his feet.  When he looked up, the door was being pushed open and the shabti were starting to make their way into the room.  Jahde stood before them and began swinging his blade.    
  
Jared felt Jensen pull away from him and he resisted, but when Jensen looked at him he knew that Jensen was out of the vision and with them again.  And he knew without question that it was no longer Jensen, but the General that walked with them.  His  movements were stiffer, more formalized than the man Jared knew.  His eyes held Jared’s for a moment and there had been recognition, but none of the warmth that he knew from Jensen.  Not even the iciness that had been there upon entering the tomb remained, just the apathetic glance of a creature with memories not his own.  
  
When the General looked at the room and saw what was happening though, he turned from Jared.  “A’nen en wi!”  Return to me, the General called to the shabti.  “A’nen en wi!”    
  
The shabti stopped as they were, turning to look at the General.  It was then that Jared felt the dark presence at the back of the tomb.  He turned to see the Pharaoh standing behind against the other wall where he’d been watching the shabti about to attack on his orders.  Where he had once been strong and beautiful, full of vitality and youth he was now nothing more than tattered flesh and bones.  He was selfish and inconsiderate in life and cruel in death.  When he looked at the General he gave him a feral smile.    
  
The words that flew from his tongue were ancient and Jared’s head spun to make sense of them, to translate.  “You have finally come home to me.”    
  
The General turned to look at the Pharaoh, the shabti silent behind him.  Jim pulled Jahde to Jared’s side and they waited to see what would happen next.  
  
“No, I have come to see you put to rest.”  The General replied in the same dusty language.  
  
The Pharaoh stepped closer, his hand caressing the General’s face softly, but his eyes showed possession and not love and the other man stepped out of his touch.  The Pharaoh’s eyes burned at the rejection and his voice was vengeful.  “Which one is it?”  He demanded as he looked at the men that had come with the General.  “The young one, is it not?”  
  
Jared felt himself being slammed back into the wall by an unseen force.  Jim and Jahde were thrown after him, each landing hard in a pile against the back wall of the tomb.    
  
“Stop!”  The General demanded.    
  
The Pharaoh sent the General to his knee with power and Jared could see him struggling against it.  “You let yourself get too high, slave,” the Pharaoh said softly.  “You forget that I own you.”  
  
Jim and Jahde crawled to Jared’s side and he could see Jahde steeling himself to move.  He looked around, trying to think of anything that might help.  When his eyes fell on the canopic jars across the room, he realized where he was and the wild fire of hope lit within him.  “Jim, the sarcophagus!”    
  
The other man followed Jared’s line of sight and he could see the moment his idea took root in the other man’s head.  They needed the General’s heart.  No one said it had to be the one he was currently using.    
  
“We can’t move that on our own.”  Jim said, as he looked around the room.  His eyes feel on the shabti, sitting at rest, waiting for the General to command.  “We need the shabti.”  
  
Jahde stood and smiled grimly as he looked down at them.  “I’ll let the General know you have need of their help.”  He sprang into action then, trying to get to the General.  
  
Jared didn’t wait to see if Jahde got through to him, instead springing up himself.  He grabbed for the poles that his men had left the first time and began trying to work one into the stone to try to wedge the sarcophagus open.  Jim was at his side, helping to maneuver the pole but it wasn’t working.  They didn’t have enough leverage or enough strength to move the heavy lid.  He had to try though.  So long as Jensen was still alive, he couldn’t stop.  He didn’t know if his idea would work or not, but it was his only change to save the General’s, and Jensen’s, soul.    
  
“Jared!”  Jared looked up at Jim and he was being gently manhandled away from the sarcophagus by one of the shabti.  As Jared took a step back he was replaced and three others stepped together.  Even with their strength it took a few minutes before they could get it moving.  
  
“Now what?”  Jim asked as they watched the shabti.  
  
“ I need a knife.”  
  
Jim handed him a long hunting knife just as the lid went crashing to the ground, toppling over.  The shabti moved away from the sarcophagus then and Jared stepped up.  He pulled the knife out and held it high over his head.  
  
He could see Jensen, still crouched, his muscles flexed as he slowly began to rise.  The Pharaoh was strong, but the General had an iron will and he refused to be bowed again.  Jahde had his blade out, but he held a gun in one hand as well and even as he shot, the bullets seemed to slide away from their target.  
  
Taking a deep breath, Jared brought the knife down into the General’s chest.  He cut through the fabric wrapping and through the remaining bone until he found the General’s preserved heart, still lying in his chest cavity.    
  
The moment his fingers touched it he heard the shabti scream.  He looked up to see the General on the floor, unmoving.  The Pharaoh looked at him, saw the heart in his hands and he was pressed against the wall again, the heart still resting in his hands.    
  
He couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe and he was struggling to fight the Pharaoh’s power.  There had to be something in him that could fight it, something that gave him the visions and allowed him to see this through.  He couldn’t believe he would die and it would end this way.  The Pharaoh smirked, though, as he walked closer, his eyes gleeful in their contempt of him.  The Pharaoh touched his chest lightly and Jared would have screamed had he air for it.  It felt like knives cutting into his flesh and the Pharaoh dragged his fingers over Jared’s chest, the pain following as he did.  
  
Then behind them, he heard Jim’s voice calling out.    
  
“Anubis, ii, sedjem en pen ib.  Kha en maa’ sesh.  Redi ek maa bak hetep en neb new.”  
  
The Pharaoh screamed and Jared felt the pressure of the power fall from his chest.  The room spun and he could barely make out Jahde at Jensen’s side and Jim standing over the lid of the sarcophagus, reading the translation that had been left there.    
  
In his hand, the General’s heart began to beat wildly and the room spun out of sight.  When it stopped, there was a simple scale before him.  On one side was Anubis, the jackal-headed God of Death and on the other was Thoth, the ibis-headed God that recorded the weighing of the hearts.  Beneath the scale waited a creature that was part crocodile, part lion, and part hippopotamus.  Ammut, known as the devourer, waited to devour any heart that didn’t pass into the heavens.    
  
Ammut snapped at him and Jared wanted to back away but then Jensen was with him.  This movements were as confident as ever, but there was still a stiffness in his motions.  He wasn’t able to tell if it was his lover or the General beside him, but he stepped in front of Jared, placing himself between Jared and Ammut.    
  
On the other side of the scale, the Pharaoh stepped away from the wall, eyes intent on them.  As Jared looked at the Pharaoh, he saw the man he had once been.  He could see the beauty there and understand how his beauty had attracted so many to him.  He could feel the power that radiated from him and the confidence that shined through piercing blue eyes.  He could understand how a lowly slave could see this man and want to prove himself worthy.  
  
No one said anything for a few minutes and Jared realized they were waiting for him.  He took a deep breath and stepped around Jensen, placing the General’s heart on the scale opposite the Feather of Ma’at.  He knew the stories, had grown up loving to hear about the Egyptian gods, but he had never feared the truth of them before.   
  
The scale began to tip as Jared pulled his hands away.  He didn’t get far before he found himself backed into Jensen, the other man looking over his shoulder as if it weren’t his life hanging in the balance.  
  
The scale tipped back and forth as it found the right balance and Jared felt his eyes close as the scales stopped, the heart weighing less than Ma’at’s Feather of Truth.    
  
He felt the treble of the General’s words against his back as the heart on the scale disappeared and Anubis looked towards the Pharaoh.  The Pharaoh’s eyes were wide as the General spoke.  “You set all of this in motion, but it was never my heart that was to be judged today.”  
  
Anubis moved forward and without pause, stuck his hand through the Pharaoh’s chest, pulling out the beating heart.  
  
“You could never see beyond your possessions.  You could never see that we were people that wanted to believe in you.  You failed us all, but I still did my best to make them honor you.” The General’s words were bitter and disturbingly final.  “It was always your heart that was found wanting.”    
  
The jackal-headed God took the heart and placed it on the scale.  Jared wanted to look back at Jensen, but he was afraid to see what the General felt as he watched the scale begin to tip.  He felt Jensen take a step around him though and he didn’t have the strength to keep to himself.  He reached out for Jensen, knowing from the stories that the General had been in love with the Pharaoh, even if he hadn’t returned the affection.  His hand touched the other man’s shoulder and Jensen turned to look at him, eyes filled with resigned sadness as he turned back to look at the scale.    
  
Jared didn’t hesitate then because whether this was the General or Jensen or something else entirely, he didn’t deserve to watch this alone.  He pulled Jensen back until the other man was held tight, his back against Jared’s chest.  Jared’s arm snaked down around Jensen’s waist and the other man held his wrist tightly.  The scale finally stopped and Ammut snapped his teeth, knocking the heart off the scale so that he could devour the unworthy heart.    
  
Jared watched in stunned silence, a small moment of hope intruding into his heart now that Jensen’s heart was no longer in danger.  They’d freed him from the curse and now he would be free to do as he wanted.  He tried to push that hope down, knowing that the man in front of him wasn’t the man he’d gone to bed with the night before, knowing that the secrets he’d kept were enough to end the budding relationship that he had with Jensen.  He couldn’t stop it though, not when the connection he’d felt to Jensen had been so real, so complete.    
  
When the Pharaoh screamed, Jared closed his eyes against the spinning of the room.  When he opened them again they were back in the tomb with Jim and Jahde.  The Pharaoh’s screams still echoed in the tomb but he was launching himself at the General.  Jared tried to scramble to his feet but his chest felt like fire and his muscles ached from the Pharaoh’s abuse.   The Pharaoh reached for the necklace and as he ripped it from Jensen’s body, the Pharaoh dropped to the ground, body twisting in pain.    
  
“No!”  Jared screamed from across the room.  He was moving before he knew what was happening, instinct guiding him to the General’s side as he began to fall.  Jared managed to get to him, but he was a dead weight and it took them both violently to the floor.  He hit hard, his head hitting stone and the last thing Jared thought before he blacked out was that the Pharaoh had managed to send the General’s soul back to his original body, leaving only an empty shell behind.  The last look he had of the General’s eyes, of Jensen’s eyes, as the Pharaoh tore away the necklace was barren and vacant.  That the man he cared about, the man he loved, was gone forever.

 

**

 

Jared took a deep breath as he looked back at the rocky caverns he was about to enter.  He tried hard not to think how nice it would be to have someone at his back, but the thought lingered in the back of his head anyway.  Instead, he gripped the torch tighter and made his way into the cave that was reportedly devouring men’s souls.  The local mythology claimed that ancient creatures once inhabited the hills and the locals believed something might have survived.  Jared’s interest had been peaked when a picture had crossed his desk of ancient Celtic ruins with warnings carved into the rock and hills around it.    
  
He had no idea what sort of creature might be inhabiting the hills, but he was no longer able to discount it just because it was a myth.  He’d seen enough to know it could be anything.  His visions were unusually quiet, except for the vague sense of warmth and homecoming he’d felt when he’d handled the first photo.  He knew it wasn’t the creature, but something on the adventure that was calling to him.  
  
Braeden looked at Jared as if to see what he would do next, but Jared just shook his head.  Braeden was a good guide in the Celtic world, but he wasn’t used to this sort of work and Jared knew not to push him.  He had enough background in the old world to fear playing with it and not enough faith to keep him from helping Jared, which meant except as a guide he was useless.  
  
“I can take it from here.  If you can just set up the camp I’ll be back before it’s too late.”  
  
The cavern system Jared found himself in was beautiful and he knew he could spend hours translating the works upon the walls but as his first foray into the cave, he needed to explore as much as he could to map it out, then he could come back with the right men and equipment.  
  
He stopped to take a break and let himself relax in the serenity of the cavern and allowed himself to consciously think the one thought that had been bouncing around the back of his head since he’s left the museum in Cairo.    
  
He wished Jensen was there.    
  
It’d been six months since they’d faced the Pharaoh together.  He’d woken in a hospital after hitting his head while trying to stop the General’s fall.  Between that and the other injuries he’d received from the Pharaoh, he’d been knocked out for a while.    
  
When he’d come around, Jim was at his side.  Akil and Jahde came to see him as well, but there was no sign of Jensen or the General.  He’d woken from his own injury as they arrived at the hospital.  Shock seemed to be the worst of his condition and after a few hours they’d let him go.  Jim said he’d checked on Jared, inquired about their health and that of their men, and then left.  
  
None of them had heard from his since.  Jared thought the General was trying to cut all the bridges that Jensen had managed to make, but a part of him couldn’t help but mourn for the man he’d loved.  The man he had never had the chance to tell.    
  
If it wasn’t that, if Jensen had survived and taken over the body instead of the General, then Jensen had just run as soon as he could because of the secrets Jared had kept.  He couldn’t blame him for that, but it still hurt to know that his actions could have caused his lover to turn away from him so completely.  
  
In the end, there was nothing he could do about it.  He had people keeping an eye out for Jensen, but if he didn’t want to be found, Jared wouldn’t find him.  He pushed the thought from his head and forced himself up off the rocks and further into the cave.  
  
He didn’t know how long he’d been at it before he heard footsteps.  He heard them a long time before they started to grow close, the acoustics of the caverns alerting him to his company.  He didn’t bother looking up from the carvings he was studying.  His fingers danced the cut stone as he worked the translation in his head until he smelled the food and realized Braeden must have faced his fears and brought his lunch down to him.  Or he’d been too afraid to stay in the haunted hillside of his own.  Still, it was painfully familiar and he didn’t turn around for fear that his emotions would show too clearly.  “Thank you Braeden.  You can leave it anywhere.”  
  
He heard Braeden set the tray down and then the heat of a body pressed against his back.  He started to turn to protest when a hand gripped his hip.  It was the voice that stilled his body though.    
  
“You never do know when to stop.”  Jensen said softly against the nape of his neck.  
  
“Thought it was your job to make sure I do.”  Jared managed to toss out, but his heart was pounding as wildly as the General’s had when he’d held it in his hands.    
  
“I’ve been pretty remiss about that lately.  I guess I have some making up to do.”  
  
He let go of him then and Jared spun around, taking in his first sight of Jensen since the Pharaoh had tried to steal his soul.  He looked good, healthy and well cared for.  There was amusement in his eyes and a hint of apprehension but as Jared cupped his face in one hand that disappeared.  
  
“I thought you were gone.”  
  
Jensen shook his head.  “It’s always been me.  I couldn’t remember it, but I’m not a different person; the General, Green-eyed, Jensen, it’s all the same.  I just needed some time to settle those memories with my life now.  I’m sorry I left you, but I couldn’t stay until I knew where my head was.”  
  
Jared’s throat felt clogged with emotion, with hope, but he spoke anyway.  “What about your heart?”  
  
Jensen smiled.  “Always knew where that was,” he said as he leaned up, pressing his lips gently against Jared’s.    
  
Jared’s lips lingered over Jensen’s.  He rested his forehead against the other man’s and took a deep breath.  “So what now?”  He asked.  
  
Jensen took a step back and looked up at Jared with a broad smile.  “Now Jared?”  Jensen laughed then.  When he crushed their lips together Jared pulled him closer.  He wasn’t letting go of Jensen and he could feel the other man’s hands wrapped around his arms just as tight.  They’d gotten through the most intense journey together and he couldn’t care less if all Jensen wanted to do was go back to the Manor House, settle in, scandalize the neighborhood with their wicked ways, so long as Jensen was in his arms again.  He’d work at the museum, become one of those men that never left, always hiding behind manuscripts and scrolls.  He’d give up all the adventuring in the world to be with Jensen now that he had him back.    
  
He saw the smile on Jensen’s face though, the mischievous tilt of his lips and the light in his eyes.  Jensen was a little of both men, the man he’d known and the General he’d learned so much about, and nothing about either man had ever lived a common life.  Jared smiled as Jensen wrapped his arms tighter around him.     
  
  “Now Jared?  We find some new adventures.”

 

 


End file.
